Device born in Italy puts the turbo on the internet
The device capable of sending complex signals on optical fibers promises to turbo the internet and telecommunications, making communications much more efficient. It is a revolution comparable to that occurred in electronics thanks to smaller and more powerful chips.
Described in Nature Photonics journal, the device was born in Italy, from the Institute of Communication, Information and Perception Technologies (TeCIP) of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and the National Interuniversity Consortium for Telecommunications (CNIT).
Coordinated by Marco Romagnoli, of the CNIT, and conducted within the framework of the Graphene Project promoted by the European Commission, the research demonstrates the feasibility of a very compact device capable of converting signals from electronic to optical: it is a silicon and graphene phase-based optical modulator, about half a millimeter in size and can be reduced to a tenth of a millimeter, and above all capable of transmitting complex signals.
“Our research shows that these devices can become very small and compact, and energy efficient”, noted one of the authors, Giampiero Contestabile, of TeCIP. All this could lead, in 5 or 10 years, to faster and more powerful fiber-optic communications, from intercontinental ones to neighborhood networks, as well as it could make electronic connections very fast and efficient, starting from the gigantic supercomputer up to pc of home and cell phones.
