New optical devices to enhance power and cooling of computers

Researchers at Washington University in St Louis have developed a new optical diode for computers that would run on light. Researchers claim that the component will make more powerful computers that would be faster and cooler.

According to one of the many people associated with the project, the new device will help many of the products involving meta-materials, electronics, plasmonics and acoustics. Currently, the buzz and reports suggest that the team working on the optical device have created an optical diode successfully by pairing tiny optical resonators, presumably in the shape of a doughnut, on a silicon chip.

This is being considered as one of the biggest feats by many experts and may have a huge significance in the future. Members and people who have been briefed on the project are already raving about the chances that the high optical device holds, which may change the world of computing in many ways.

Lan Yang, an associate professor of electrical and systems engineering at Washington University says, "We believe that our discovery will benefit many other fields involving electronics, acoustics, plasmonics and meta-materials." "Coupling of so-called loss and gain devices using PT (parity-time)-symmetry could enable such advances as cloaking devices, stronger lasers that need less input power, and perhaps detectors that could 'see' a single atom," Yang added. 

The principle of PT-symmetry is based upon mathematical theories advanced by Carl M. Bender, PhD, the Wilfred R. and Ann Lee Konneker Distinguished Professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

Simply put, when a "lossy" system is coupled with a "gain" system such that loss of energy exactly equals gain at an equilibrium point, a "phase transition" occurs.

Applying the principles of PT symmetry leads optics to a completely different set of behaviors not predicted by conventional physics with only loss or only gain. The phenomena that occur at the "phase transition" are dramatic and hitherto unexpected

Yang and Ozdemir believe that the PT concept can be extended to electronics, acoustics and other fields to create one-way channels, and photonic devices with advanced functionalities, and they are already working on new experiments relying on PT-symmetry.

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