Light computers
Optical computing ( photonic processors or light computers ) is already becoming a reality, but its development is not as fast as light.
And this is for a very simple reason: The inherent property of light to travel at a fixed speed, which makes it very difficult – and more complex than one would like – to implement memory and buffering functions, essential for computing.
The solution has been to use various mechanisms to slow down the speed of light . These mechanisms are typically complex and fixed, meaning that each piece of hardware can only generate the speed reduction for which it was built.
But that limitation has just been overcome, thanks to a photonic integrated circuit capable of slowing down light on demand.
The new integrated and programmable platform enables real-time control of the temporal and spectral properties of optical signals, overcoming the limitations of conventional fixed optical delay structures. This will allow the integration of essential functionalities for next-generation light interconnects – such as signal synchronization, variable delay lines, optical buffers, and frequency conversion – into a single integrated circuit architecture.
Brake light
The key to this “light braking” is an optical phenomenon that selectively transmits light within a specific frequency range, while simultaneously slowing down the propagation speed of optical signals. Its technical name is coupled – resonator-induced transparency, or CRIT for short .
Fixed structures that exploited CRIT already existed, but the impossibility of reconfiguration makes them of little use in practical computers.
This limitation was overcome with a new approach that treats two optical states – the bright mode and the dark mode – as a single unified degree of freedom. This was made possible by using two controllable loop couplers, allowing resonator structures, previously fixed after fabrication, to be reconfigured as needed.
The two couplers also allow control over the width and shape of the passband, as well as the delay and transmission characteristics of the signals propagating through the integrated circuit. This implies that the speed of light propagation and the transmission properties of optical signals can be freely reconfigured, not only within a single resonator, but in entire multiresonator systems.
And the project can be extended to other systems beyond CRITs, encompassing a wide range of resonator-based photonic circuits, paving the way for its use as a fundamental technology for next-generation optical signal processing, enabling flexible design and control of light propagation, and allowing for multiple photonic processing architectures.
Source: www.inovacaotecnologica.com.br
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