A new type of small optical device appropriate to fit several devices on a computer chip has been formulated by researches that promote accelerated, potential information processing and supercomputers.
The ‘passive optical diode’ is derived from two tiny silicon rings of about 10 µ in diameter, measuring to 1/10 the width of a human hair. These diodes can be directly integrated into computer chips, without the need of any external support to transmit signals.
According to Minghao Qi, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, the diode transmits signals in only one direction, termed as ‘nonreciprocal transmission’, that facilitates information processing.
While fiber optic cables are involved in active transmission of numerous data extensively, information processing decelerates and the data are prone to cyber attack during the translation of the optical signals into electronic signals for employing in computers, and vice versa.
Graduate student Li Fan said that the electronic diodes represent critical junctions in transistors and facilitate controlling integrated circuits and information processing. These new optical diodes are compliant with the manufacturing processes of the industry for the corresponding metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS) that are used for computer chip production.
The new optical diodes support accelerated and protected information processing without the need for translation. The devices, readily available for commercialization, contribute to the construction of advanced supercomputers by integrating several processors together.
A laser at telecommunication wavelength generates infrared light, which passes through an optical fiber, directed by a waveguide. Then, it proceeds successively through two silicon rings where ‘nonlinear interaction’ takes place inside the tiny rings. When light emerges, it will either pass in the forward direction or disperses in the backward direction, depending on the ring, facilitating one-way transmission. Tuning of the rings takes place by heating them with a microheater, altering the wavelengths of transmission, thereby supporting a broad frequency range.
Source: http://www.purdue.edu/