Utah People's Post

The Latest News from the Beehive State

Monday, March 8, 2021
Log in
  • National News
    • Female Caseworker Killed & Doctor Shot in Philadelphia
  • State News
    • Car Chase Leads to Drug Arrest
  • Tech & Science
  • Health
    • How to Prepare For Ticks Season
    • Magical Weight Loss Bean Scam
  • Sports
  • Business
You are here: Home / Technology / Silicon Nanocavity Traps Light, Mimics Biology

Silicon Nanocavity Traps Light, Mimics Biology

June 17, 2014 Posted by Staff

Physicists at the University of Rochester have created a silicon nanocavity that allows light to be trapped longer than in any other similar sized optical cavities. They achieved a 10-fold improvement on the performance of previous nanocavities using an innovative design approach that mimics evolutionary biology. In a paper published in Applied Physics today, the scientists demonstrate confined light in a nanocavity for nanoseconds.

Typically light would travel several meters in that time but instead the nanostructure confined light in a region no bigger than one hundredth the width of a human hair, roughly one-half millionth of a meter. Nanocavities are key components of nanophotonics circuits and researchers explain that this new approach will help implement a new generation of highly integrated nanophotonics structures.

“In order to build a quantum computer, we not only need to be able to control complex phenomena such as entanglement and mixture but we need to be able to do this on a chip, so that we can practically duplicate many such miniature circuits in the same way as the modern computers we have today,” says Professor Jeremy O’Brien, Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics. “Our device enables this and we believe it is a major step towards optical quantum computing.”

The chip consists of a network of tiny channels which guide, manipulate and interact single photons—particles of light. Using eight reconfigurable electrodes embedded in the circuit, photon pairs can be manipulated and entangled, producing any possible entangled state of two photons or any mixed state of one photon. “It isn’t ideal if your quantum computer can only perform a single specific task”, explains Peter Shadbolt, lead author of the study, which is published in the journal Nature Photonics. “We would prefer to have a reconfigurable device which can perform a broad variety of tasks, much like our desktop PCs today—this reconfigurable ability is what we have now demonstrated. This device is approximately ten times more complex than previous experiments using this technology. It’s exciting because we can perform many different experiments in a very straightforward way, using a single reconfigurable chip.”

The researchers, who have been developing quantum photonic chips for the past six years, are now working on scaling up the complexity of this device and see this technology as the building block for the quantum computers of the future.

Integrated nanophotonics is a new and rapidly growing field of research laying at the intersection of photonics, nanotechnology, and materials science. In the near future, nanophotonics circuits will enable disruptive technologies ranging from telecommunications to biosensing, and because they can process pulses of light extremely fast and with very low energy consumption, they hold the potential to replace conventional information-handling systems.

The results shown by the researchers demonstrate one of the highest quality factors ever measured in nanocavities while maintaining a very small footprint. By keeping the nanocavities so small while trapping light so efficiently it becomes possible to create devices with ultra-dense integration, a desired characteristic in the fabrication of optical nanocircuits.

The extreme sensitivity of these nanocavities towards tiny changes in the environment, for example a virus attaching near the area where light is trapped, makes these devices particularly appealing for biosensing. By using these highly sensible nanocavities, such a biosensing device could detect minute quantities of these biomaterials by analyzing a single drop of blood. The group is now starting a collaboration with researchers at the University of Rochester’s Medical Center to exploit this interesting property with the new nanocavities.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: photonics, quantum computer, silicon nanocavity, University of Rochester

Woman working out at the gym

Just 23% of Americans Are Working Out Enough in Their Spare Time

June 29, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

Poliovirus Therapy Gives Brain Cancer Patients New Hope (Study)

June 29, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

United Airlines airplane

Passenger Mysteriously Dies on United Airlines flight Bound for Boston

June 28, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

Breakfast sandwich

Here Are Some Foods No Nutritionist Would Ever Eat

June 27, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

Poppy flower

UN Warns of Surge in Opium-based Drugs and Cocaine Supply

June 27, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

U.S.-Canada border

French Jogger Detained 2 Weeks for Accidentally Crossing Border

June 26, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

Plus size model

Normalizing Plus Size Could Fuel Obesity Crisis (Study)

June 25, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

Giant manta ray

Unique Manta Ray Nursery Spotted off Texas Coast

June 23, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

The rainbow flag

WHO Scraps Transgenderism from List of Mental Illnesses

June 22, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

456 People Dead at U.K. Hospital after Taking too Many Painkillers

June 21, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

Kenyan girls dancing

Kenyans Facing Poor Nutrition as Supermarket Shopping Is on the Rise

June 20, 2018 By Amelia Donovan

Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Staff
  • Terms and Conditions

Recent Posts

  • Just 23% of Americans Are Working Out Enough in Their Spare Time
  • Poliovirus Therapy Gives Brain Cancer Patients New Hope (Study)
  • Passenger Mysteriously Dies on United Airlines flight Bound for Boston
  • Here Are Some Foods No Nutritionist Would Ever Eat
  • UN Warns of Surge in Opium-based Drugs and Cocaine Supply
  • French Jogger Detained 2 Weeks for Accidentally Crossing Border
  • Normalizing Plus Size Could Fuel Obesity Crisis (Study)

Related Articles

  • Vintage radio

    Samsung Equipping Its Smartphones with Active FM Chips

    Jan 14, 2018
  • Apple Watch user

    Apple Is Officially the World’s Largest Wearable Producer

    Nov 16, 2017
  • Overwatch logo on a black background

    Hundreds of Chinese Players Get Banned from Playing Overwatch

    Nov 5, 2017
  • Captcha test displaying a series of letters

    Advanced AI System Manages to Fool Captcha Tests and Pass as Human

    Oct 28, 2017
  • Facebook app on a black phone

    Publishers Worldwide Are Afraid of Facebook’s News Feed Experiment

    Oct 25, 2017
  • Woman writing texts on an iPhone

    Japanese Company Sues Apple for the Animoji Trademark

    Oct 22, 2017
  • Teenagers looking at their smartphones

    Facebook Acquires the Teen Favorite App Tbh

    Oct 18, 2017
  • Mark Zuckerberg talking at a conference

    Zuckerberg Apologizes for the VR Video about Puerto Rico

    Oct 12, 2017
  • Presentation of Adblock Plus

    Malicious Developers Tricked Thousands of People with a Fake Adblock Plus Extension

    Oct 11, 2017
  • Master Chief jumping in a cave

    Microsoft Hides Clever Easter Egg Inside the Xbox One X Console

    Oct 8, 2017

Categories

  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • National News
  • Nature
  • Provo
  • Salt Lake News
  • Science
  • Sports
  • State News
  • Tech & Science
  • Technology
  • Uncategorized
  • West Jordan
  • West Valley City
  • World

Copyright © 2021 utahpeoplespost.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Site Map · Contact

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.