Lenny
08-12-2004, 10:47 AM
Carleton researchers set sights on light-based Internet that's 100 times faster than today's
The Ottawa Citizen
Thu 12 Aug 2004
Page: D1 / Front
Section: City
Byline: Sarah Staples
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Researchers from Carleton University in Ottawa and the University of Toronto have designed a new nanotech-sized material that could be used to build a turbocharged Internet based entirely on light.
In a discovery published yesterday in the journal Nano Letters, a team led by University of Toronto electrical engineer Ted Sargent used nanotechnology to create a material that lets one laser beam redirect, or "switch" another beam with unprecedented control.
The discovery will eventually allow light-based switches -- instead of electronic ones -- to route information travelling over the Internet's fibre-optic networks. It is expected to lead to an all-optical -- or light-based -- network that would be 100 times faster than today's.
The Canadian material is at least 15 times stronger than anything created before, and closes the legendary Kuzyk Quantum Gap, a measurement referring to the spread between what was previously achievable in materials science, and what is theoretically possible according to principles of quantum physics.
At least 1,000 laboratories worldwide have been trying to narrow the Kuzyk Quantum Gap, but the best results in recent years have come only within a factor of 30. The Canadian material comes within a factor of two.
"It's really been a Holy Grail, to be able to reach the ultimate physical limit of what one can do with light," said Mr. Sargent yesterday. "Until a few years ago, we simply didn't have the tools -- nanotechnology wasn't around."
The material designed by Mr. Sargent and Carleton University chemistry professor Wayne Wang, with colleague Connie Kuang, melds nanometre-sized, soccer ball-shaped carbon atom molecules known as "buckyballs" together with a new class of polymer into a clear, smooth film.
The combination allows light particles, called photons, from one laser to perceive and interact with the distinctive colour patterns, or wavelengths, of another beam. The material was able to process information carried at telecommunications wavelengths -- the infrared colours of light used in fibre-optic cables.
The new class of hybrid material can be used to build all-optical "switches" that would be capable of relaying data through a global network of fibre-optic cables in picoseconds -- trillionths of a second -- avoiding the major inconvenience and delay of the current system, which must convert light signals between optical and electronic formats in order to control the information flow, Mr. Sargent said.
"As information exchange speeds up with the development of better, more complex optical communication systems, the only remaining bottleneck has been that 'electronic router,' " he said. "This is addressing the problem head on."
Washington State University theorist and physicist professor Mark Kuzyk, who first postulated a fundamental physical limit for such "non-linear properties of molecular materials" in 2000, praised the U of T-Carleton team, saying Canadians had succeeded where all other researchers globally have failed.
In the past, scientists had experimented with a variety of materials, including semi-conductors and different forms of glass. Those materials didn't have enough strength to endure the rigours of light-light interaction, weren't effective in working at the spectrum of colours for optical fibre, or simply didn't allow light to be transmitted fast enough.
The next step in designing a supercharged Internet will be to make all-optical switches from the Canadian material -- a step that will require years more research, Mr. Sargent said.
Networking companies and public-private consortia around the world, such as Montreal's Agile All-Photonic Network -- a five-year, $7-million project spearheaded by McGill University -- have been watching for the creation of such a material, and are at various stages of designing blueprints for an all-optical Internet.
"There's some work to be done in (switches), then the entire network will have to be redesigned around the new paradigm."
The researchers themselves have patented the new material in the U.S., plus blueprints for the all-optical switches as well as networks that would be built out of them.
Mr. Sargent, who holds the Nortel Networks Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies, said there has been a "high level of commercial and government interest in the intellectual property," including from military sources.
The research itself was supported by the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, Nortel Networks, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canada Research Chairs Foundation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Innovation Trust.
Some early morning easy reading :D
The Ottawa Citizen
Thu 12 Aug 2004
Page: D1 / Front
Section: City
Byline: Sarah Staples
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Researchers from Carleton University in Ottawa and the University of Toronto have designed a new nanotech-sized material that could be used to build a turbocharged Internet based entirely on light.
In a discovery published yesterday in the journal Nano Letters, a team led by University of Toronto electrical engineer Ted Sargent used nanotechnology to create a material that lets one laser beam redirect, or "switch" another beam with unprecedented control.
The discovery will eventually allow light-based switches -- instead of electronic ones -- to route information travelling over the Internet's fibre-optic networks. It is expected to lead to an all-optical -- or light-based -- network that would be 100 times faster than today's.
The Canadian material is at least 15 times stronger than anything created before, and closes the legendary Kuzyk Quantum Gap, a measurement referring to the spread between what was previously achievable in materials science, and what is theoretically possible according to principles of quantum physics.
At least 1,000 laboratories worldwide have been trying to narrow the Kuzyk Quantum Gap, but the best results in recent years have come only within a factor of 30. The Canadian material comes within a factor of two.
"It's really been a Holy Grail, to be able to reach the ultimate physical limit of what one can do with light," said Mr. Sargent yesterday. "Until a few years ago, we simply didn't have the tools -- nanotechnology wasn't around."
The material designed by Mr. Sargent and Carleton University chemistry professor Wayne Wang, with colleague Connie Kuang, melds nanometre-sized, soccer ball-shaped carbon atom molecules known as "buckyballs" together with a new class of polymer into a clear, smooth film.
The combination allows light particles, called photons, from one laser to perceive and interact with the distinctive colour patterns, or wavelengths, of another beam. The material was able to process information carried at telecommunications wavelengths -- the infrared colours of light used in fibre-optic cables.
The new class of hybrid material can be used to build all-optical "switches" that would be capable of relaying data through a global network of fibre-optic cables in picoseconds -- trillionths of a second -- avoiding the major inconvenience and delay of the current system, which must convert light signals between optical and electronic formats in order to control the information flow, Mr. Sargent said.
"As information exchange speeds up with the development of better, more complex optical communication systems, the only remaining bottleneck has been that 'electronic router,' " he said. "This is addressing the problem head on."
Washington State University theorist and physicist professor Mark Kuzyk, who first postulated a fundamental physical limit for such "non-linear properties of molecular materials" in 2000, praised the U of T-Carleton team, saying Canadians had succeeded where all other researchers globally have failed.
In the past, scientists had experimented with a variety of materials, including semi-conductors and different forms of glass. Those materials didn't have enough strength to endure the rigours of light-light interaction, weren't effective in working at the spectrum of colours for optical fibre, or simply didn't allow light to be transmitted fast enough.
The next step in designing a supercharged Internet will be to make all-optical switches from the Canadian material -- a step that will require years more research, Mr. Sargent said.
Networking companies and public-private consortia around the world, such as Montreal's Agile All-Photonic Network -- a five-year, $7-million project spearheaded by McGill University -- have been watching for the creation of such a material, and are at various stages of designing blueprints for an all-optical Internet.
"There's some work to be done in (switches), then the entire network will have to be redesigned around the new paradigm."
The researchers themselves have patented the new material in the U.S., plus blueprints for the all-optical switches as well as networks that would be built out of them.
Mr. Sargent, who holds the Nortel Networks Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies, said there has been a "high level of commercial and government interest in the intellectual property," including from military sources.
The research itself was supported by the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, Nortel Networks, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canada Research Chairs Foundation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Innovation Trust.
Some early morning easy reading :D