Category Physics

An illustration of a silicon photonic micro-disk modulator operating at cryogenic temperatures. Light traveling down the silicon waveguide couples to the resonance of the micro-disk cavity. An electrical signal applied to the disk shifts the resonance and as a result modulates the light passing through the waveguide. (Rendered by Hanqing Kuang) Credit: Michael Gehl, Sandia National Laboratories

A silicon optical switch newly developed at Sandia National Laboratories is the first to transmit up to 10 Gb/s of data at temperatures just a few degrees above 0K. The device could enable data transmission for next-generation superconducting computers that store and process data at cryogenic temperatures...

Researchers at the University’s Institute of Optics developed a technique that uses lasers to render materials hydrophobic—extremely water repellant. (University photo / Matthew Mann)

Tiny micro- and nanoscale structures within a material’s surface are invisible to the naked eye, but play a big role in determining a material’s physical, chemical, and biomedical properties. Over the past few years, Chunlei Guo and his University of Rochester team found ways to manipulate those structures by irradiating laser pulses to a material’s surface. They altered materials to make them repel water, attract water, and absorb great amounts of light – all without any type of coating. Now, Guo, Anatoliy Vorobyev, and Ranran Fang at University’s Institute of Optics, have advanced the research...

A semiconductor crystal has shown an unprecedented capacity to shape ultrashort laser pulses. Credit: Fabian Langer, Regensburg University

Extremely short, configurable “femtosecond” pulses of light demonstrated by an international team could lead to future computers that run up to 100,000 times faster than today’s electronics. The researchers, including engineers at the University of Michigan, showed that they could control the peaks within the laser pulses and also twist the light. The method moves electrons faster and more efficiently than electrical currents – and with reliable effects on their quantum states. It is a step toward so-called “lightwave electronics” and, in the more distant future, quantum computing, said U-M professor Mackillo Kira.

Electrons moving through a semiconduct...

Al Molnar, holding a test board with the two-way transceiver chip mounted in the center, is shown with graduate student Hazal Yüksel in Molnar’s lab. Yüksel is co-lead author of the latest paper from the Molnar lab, published earlier this year in the Journal of Solid-State Circuits. Credit: Cornell University

Cornell engineers have devised a method for transmitting and receiving radio signals on a single chip, which could ultimately help change the way wireless communication is done. Separating the send and receive bands is difficult enough, but the problem is compounded by the ever-increasing number of bands in the latest devices, which handle everything wireless technology has to offer...