THE new principle of all-optical switch proposed by the research team of Professor Song Qinghai of Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen is expected to break the trade-off between ultra-short switching time and ultralow energy consumption. Related research was published in Science on Friday under the title of “Ultrafast control of vortex microlasers.” Collaborately completed by Harbin Institute of Technology, City University of New York and the Australian National University, the research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the State Key Laboratory of Tunable Laser Technology, the Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Information System Theory and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Extreme Optics Cooperative Innovation Center. All-optical switch are devices that control light by light, which is the fundamental building block of modern optical communications and information processing. Creating an efficient, ultrafast, and compact all-optical switch has been recognized as the key step for the developments of next-generation optical and quantum computing. “Low-energy consumption usually requires high Q factor of resonator, whereas the longer lifetime high-Q mode imposes an obstacle for improving the switching speed,” said Professor Song. “An alternative approach with plasmonic nanostructure has been recently exploited to break the trade-off. The inserting and propagating loss is as large as 19 dB and additional power consumption is required to amplify the signals.” (SD News) |