Schematic of complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor-integratable OAM nanometrology. Source: RMIT University
Broadband fiber-optics carry information on pulses of light, at the speed of light, through optical fibers. Data speeds are still affected by the way the light is encoded at one end and processed at the other.
A tiny nanophotonic device designed at Australia’s RMIT University encodes more data and processes it much faster than conventional fiber optics by using a special form of twisted light. The device is expected to help unlock super-fast, ultra-broadband communications.
State-of-the-art fiber-optic communications currently use only a fraction of light’s actual capacity by carrying data on the color spectrum. New broadband technologies under development use the oscillation, or shape, of light waves to encode data -- increasing bandwidth by also making use of the light that is not visible.
The new approach carries data on light waves that have been twisted into a spiral to increase their capacity further still. This is known as light in a state of orbital angular momentum (OAM). The researchers previously decoded a small range of this twisted light on a nanophotonic chip, but technology to detect a wide range of OAM light for optical communications was still not viable, until now. Ultrathin topological nanosheets measuring a fraction of a millimeter were used to design the miniature OAM nano-electronic detector which fits on the end of an optical fiber. The materials are compatible with silicon-based materials used in most technology, making it easy to scale up for industry applications.
The detector can also be used to receive quantum information sent via twisting light, meaning it could have applications in a whole range of cutting-edge quantum communications and quantum computing research.
According to Professor Min Gu, an author of this report, and professor in RMIT University's School of Science, “It fits the scale of existing fiber technology and could be applied to increase the bandwidth, or potentially the processing speed, of that fiber by over 100 times within the next couple of years. This easy scalability and the massive impact it will have on telecommunications is what’s so exciting.”
The research is published in Nature Communications.
