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Peeking At The Future: "Perfect Mirror" Cables

Posted by timothy on from the unless-this-is-completely-made-up dept.

sonofpan writes: "About 18 months ago I heard about a few guys at MIT who developed a process for creating a (near) perfect mirror that could reflect many different frequencies at any angle with almost no loss of strength (something that was said to be theoretically impossible). Apparently, they have finally gotten their patents and used the technology to create a dielectric coaxial cable that can transmit light across vast distances and around tight turns with virtually no loss of signal. Read about it at: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/ nr/2000/waveguide.html and the company they started at: http://www.omni-guide.com. And the original link that described the process and the huge possibilities for its uses is a very interesting read as well: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffi ce/tt/1998/dec09/mirror.html."

4 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Implications by MAXOMENOS · · Score: 5

    Hey, I just realized what this means. If it's reflective on such a wide range of frequencies, that means that the amount of multiplexing data compression you can do is huge. One of these fibers might be able to carry a hundred times more data then any current fiber, for instance, just by having sub-bands that use different light frequencies. Each band would think they had exclusive use of the superfiber, so they could all be running at max datarate.

    Just what we need. Another 50,000 channels of cable TV.



    The Tyrrany Begins....
    --
    Finding God in a Dog
  2. Re:Screw networking by Shoeboy · · Score: 5

    Can you imagine a sheet of this stuff on your ceiling?
    And wake up every morning thinking a naked fat guy was about to land on top of me? No thanks.
    --Shoeboy

  3. double-A photon batteries... by Sebastopol · · Score: 5

    This is from one of the links off of the article:

    Trapping light invites all sorts of intriguing questions, Fink points out. For instance, if you light a candle in a room lined with perfect mirrors, would the room stay illuminated even after the flame is extinguished?

    It seems there wouldn't be any way to test to see if the light was trapped inside the room. If you looked inside, some light would escape, and if any energy was exiting the box as a result of the light, then it wouldn't be trapped in the room.

    Maybe I'm confusing light & energy here, but if you burned a candle in a box made of this perfect mirror: 1) all of the heat energy from the chemical reaction during burning the candle is released in photons via radiation; which means 2) all of the chemical energy would be converted to photons bouncing around in the box; therefore 3) the box/room would now be a type of battery storing the energy in photons.

    So could one create little boxes-o'-light that would have pracitcal uses like a common battery?

    I think I'll stop now that I've grossly misused a good number of physics concepts...


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  4. This may make Quantum Cryptography a reality by Pontiphex · · Score: 5

    One of the biggest things holding back quantum cryptography is the fact that you can't go but 30km before you lose the signal. In traditional communications you can just use a booster/repeater....but when we are talking about measuring the spins of photons we run into the heisenburg wall. (can't measure something without disturbing it)

    Since repeaters would need to measure a photon to recreate it as a stronger signal, this has always been out of the question. But now if we have this cable that can go great distances without repeaters, then we are one giant step closer to quantum crypto.

    If you want more info on the subject, I suggest the book "Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse"

    --b