New All-Optical Modulator Paves the Way to Ultrafast Communications and Computing

PhysOrg.com, accessed 11 Oct 2006 In the 1950s, a revolution began when glass and metal vacuum tubes were replaced with tiny and cheap transistors. Today, for the cost of a single vacuum tube, you can buy a computer chip with literally millions of transistors. Today, physicists and engineers are looking to accomplish a similar shrinking act with the components of optical systems -- lasers, modulators, detectors, and more -- that are used to manipulate light. The goal: designing ultrafast computing and communications devices that use photons of light, instead of electrons, to transmit information and perform computations, all with unprecedented speed. Read more