A real technological breakthrough will be made when photonic computers, running through light employment, not electronics, will be at our disposal.

This is coming closer as a team at the University of Bath is going to investigate further on the attosecond technology, the ability to deliver light in pulses measurable in attoseconds (one billion-billionth of a second).

The photonics technology would also give physicists the opportunity to take a very close look into the atomic structure for the first time.

The research team led by Dr Fetah Benabid will start the investigation in June.

The team's goal is to control photonic 'waveforms' with the same accuracy as electric fields employed in electronics.

Electric fields rise and fall in energy in a pattern similar to that of the oceanic waves, but modern electronic technology permits a tight control on "wave"'s shape, which can be square or triangular rather than curved, making electronic devices (computers included) work in the required precise way.

The problem is, even if the ever smaller silicon chips permitted computers to double their memory size each 18 months, this will end up in the next few years as physics laws do not allow a smaller certain size.

Photonics could provide a much more powerful alternative.

Current photonics employ light with only one waveform (sine wave) of limited value for running a computer.

The Bath team's target is to achieve waveforms in various patterns, employing the new photonic crystals, which unlike common optical fibers, can direct light with a minimal energy loss.

One wavelength light will be directed into a photonic crystal fiber which branches off in a tree-like arrangement of fibers, each branch with a slightly different wavelength, making a wide specter of light from ultra-violet to the infra-red range.

This wide specter would enable a tight control over the electric field, the key of expressing the huge information amounts that modern devices (computers included) necessitate.

"Harnessing optical waves would represent a huge step, perhaps the definitive one, in establishing the photonics era," said Benabid.

"Since the development of the laser, a major goal in science and technology has been to emulate the breakthroughs of electronics by using optical waves. We feel this project could be a big step in this. If successful, the research will be the basis for a revolution in computer power as dramatic as that over the past 50 years."

The new technology could create lasers that operate at wavelengths unapproachable by current technology.

But it will also boost the research of the little known quantum physics of sub-atomic particles.