Researchers at Heriot-Watt University (HWU) in Edinburgh have announced a significant breakthrough in photonic technology that could herald a new era in how light is manipulated. On Tuesday, March 18, the team, led by Dr Marcello Ferrera, an associate professor in nanophotonics, reported that they have successfully proven the scientific theory of manipulating the optical properties of light by incorporating an additional dimension: time.

The achievement stems from the university’s recent collaboration, which saw it awarded a share of £6.5 million from the UK-Canada Quantum for Science Research initiative, aimed at advancing research in this field over the next two years.

In their research, the HWU team explored the capabilities of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), a type of nanomaterial that alters how light behaves within the material at remarkable speeds. Commonly used in technologies such as solar panels and touchscreens, TCOs can be manufactured into ultra-thin films only 250 nanometers in thickness—less than the wavelength of visible light.

Through their experimentation, they discovered the ability to manipulate these TCOs to impact the speed at which photons travel, effectively introducing what they refer to as a ‘fourth dimension’ to the manipulation of light. This would allow for transformations of light that include amplification, the generation of quantum states, and new methods of controlling light.

“By using a nonlinear material to fully exploit optical bandwidth, companies and major organisations can process so much more information,” Dr Ferrera stated, emphasizing the prospective applications of this research. He noted that the findings could significantly enhance data processing speeds and volumes compared to existing technologies, particularly in the fields of optical computing, artificial intelligence, integrated quantum technologies, and ultra-fast physics.

Dr Ferrera elaborated on the practical implications of their findings, stating, “If we are aiming at making a virtual meeting a fully immersive 3D experience, this would demand enormous computational power and processing speed, which only ultra-fast all-optical components can provide.” He asserted that the properties of the materials under study could potentially increase computational speeds by several orders of magnitude while enabling the handling of significantly greater volumes of information with lower energy consumption.

Alongside Dr Ferrera, the research team includes Dr Wallace Jaffray, a postdoctoral research associate, and doctoral researcher Sven Stengel, both of whom have contributed to this cutting-edge work. Dr Ferrera remarked that the ongoing search for a material that can dramatically change under low-energy illumination swiftly had been a longstanding objective in all-optical technology since the advent of lasers.

The team’s findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Photonics, marking a notable milestone in the field of nonlinear optics. According to Vladimir Shalaev, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, who assisted in the research, “These low-index transparent conductors have brought a real revolution within the field of integrated nonlinear optics, allowing for the effective and energy-efficient manipulation of optical signals on unprecedentedly short time scales.”

Alexandra Boltasseva, also a distinguished professor at Purdue, added that the collaborative research demonstrates the potential of using time as a variable to engineer the optical properties of materials, pushing the boundaries of what was previously achievable through traditional fabrication processes.

Source: Noah Wire Services