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World's Smallest Optical Switch Uses a Single Atom (gizmag.com)
Zothecula writes: The rapid and on-going development of micro-miniature optical electronic devices is helping to usher in a new era of photonic computers and light-based memories that promise super-fast processor speeds and ultra-secure communications. However, as these components are shrunk ever further, fundamental limits to their dimensions are dictated by the wavelength of light itself. Now researchers at ETH Zurich claim to have overcome this limitation by creating both the world's smallest optical switch using a single atom, and accompanying circuitry that appears to break the rules by being smaller than the wavelength of the light that passes through it.
Not that impressive, other optical switches don't require a CPU at all, never mind an Atom!
(Yeah, I know, Title Case. Still doesn't help me parse correctly sometimes)
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for people who find really tiny switches a huge turn-on
If this is the new boss, I'm all for it. I care a lot about politics, privacy, and economics. I come to Slashdot for other stuff.
Thanks.
I actually read the article. This seems like a pretty big deal. The megahertz switching speed is the only negative.
Is it binary (on/off) or cat (alive/dead/both)?
Maybe instead you should be questioning whether the statement that it breaks the laws of physics... which too many news articles seem to write using intro level physics at best, or at worst just gut intuition.
Things smaller than the wavelength interact with light all the time, whether antennas that are much smaller than the wavelength they are send/receiving, or individual atoms emitting and absorbing light. There is even a whole area of research with near field microscopy. Now there are some limits to efficiency of coupling to waves of much larger size in simple situations, but often those limits are specified for linear optics cases, and get much more complex in nonlinear cases.
Sub-atomic is the future of getting small. Ironically, its the next big thing.
That's cool, but my understanding is that the limit on processor speed isn't the switching speed, we've had transistors that switch at 600GHz for a while now. The problem is making good wires to connect them together, while dissipating heat.
Well, no. The problem is that was a PoC, and they hadn't even developed a single multi-gate circuit by the time you posted that article. We do not have 600GHz transistors. They are coming, eventually. Even when they do, they may or may not be good for making VLSI ICs with, which remains to be seen. Maybe they'll only be useful as signal amplifiers in the end, and we'll have to go optical to improve computing performance.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"We do not have 600GHz transistors"
We have faster transistors man
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."