February 17, 2014

Nature: Ultra-small and Ultra–fast Electro-optic Modulator

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Nature Photonics Magazine Presents a World-record Micrometer-sized Converter of Electrical into Optical Signals / Future Energy-efficient Chip-to-chip Optical Communication Links

Thanks to optical signals, mails and data can be transmitted rapidly around the globe. But also exchange of digital information between electronic chips may be accelerated and energy efficiency might be increased by using optical signals. However, this would require simple methods to switch from electrical to optical signals. In the Nature Photonics magazine, researchers now present a device of 29 µm in length, which converts signals at a rate of about 40 gigabits per second. It is the most compact high-speed phase modulator in the world.