Graphene Could Boost Speed of Digital Communications

Investigators with the University of California in Berkeley (UCB) say that the carbon compound graphene could be used as an efficient means of boosting the current speed of communications.

What the UCB engineers did was essentially learn how to use graphene in an entirely new type of technology that could be used to break the limits of communication speeds. This could in turn lead to a better and faster Internet and phone service, among others.

In the new research, UCB engineering professor Xiang Zhang and his team managed to create a graphene-based, light-switching optical device, which they say could revolutionize electronics.

The new instrument is very tiny, and it features only a minute layer of the one-atom-thick graphene. Zhang says that the instrument is extremely efficient at playing the role of a network modulator, a piece of equipment that regulates the speed at which information packets travel through a network.

The recipe for speed in such a network is really simple, experts add. The quicker the data packets are sent out, the faster new ones can be processed, and the faster the information gets from the source to the end user.

Using the new, graphene-based modulators, it may soon become possible to stream 3D, HD movie clips to mobile phones within a matter of seconds.

“This is the world’s smallest optical modulator, and the modulator in data communications is the heart of speed control,” explains Zhang, who also holds an appointment as the UCB National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

“Graphene enables us to make modulators that are incredibly compact and that potentially perform at speeds up to ten times faster than current technology allows,” the expert goes on to say.

“This new technology will significantly enhance our capabilities in ultrafast optical communication and computing,” Zhang adds. Details of the new investigation appear in the May 8 advanced online issue of the top journal Nature.

“The impact of this technology will be far-reaching. In addition to high-speed operations, graphene-based modulators could lead to unconventional applications due to graphene’s flexibility and ease in integration with different kinds of materials,” adds Feng Wang.

“Graphene can also be used to modulate new frequency ranges, such as mid-infrared light, that are widely used in molecular sensing,” concludes the expert, who is an assistant professor of physics and head of the UCB Ultrafast Nano-Optics Group.