Optical Memory, One Step Closer to Reality

More and more research groups are walking on the optoelectronics pathway in search of faster, cheaper and more efficient chips. The transistor is already close to its end after it has been serving the IT cause for more than 60 years now, and needs a fast replacement to save the semiconductor industry from collapse.

Optical computers are starting to become reality, as significant progress in manipulating light is made. IBM has taken it very seriously with their research on an optical processor, but the main problem is when it comes down to system memory.

Light is however, a tenacious fighter and would rather not be enclosed in a chip, which asks for engineers' enhanced persuasion methods. The Duke University laboratories managed to solve some of these issues, or so they claim.

These scientists state that they have used an innovative procedure, called "Stimulated Brillouin Scattering" to "carve" data on an optical fiber segment. The data gets stored as an imperceptible vibration where two opposing laser beams hit the same piece of fiber. The vibrations are known as phonons and may be the key to open another gate in technological progress.

However, the procedure involves some tricks. The phonons can be created only if the opposing laser beams are emitted on a different wavelength. The existing phononic data can be read by a third laser, diffused through the optical fiber, and then converted back to electrical signals.

There still are multiple problems that hinder the process. First of all, the phonons are ephemeral - they only last 12 billionths of a second, which is not enough for this kind of application. Yet, researchers are confident that some other optical materials could preserve them enough for long-time storage. The second issue is that the laser beams would eat up 100 watts each, which is a major drawback when it comes to common desktop PCs.

"I'm hoping that other scientists around the world will come up with new ideas based on our work", said Daniel Gauthier, a Duke physics professor. "The Duke team will also be pushing the state of the art in this field with our own ideas."