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Light will replace electrons in the computers of the future

14.11.2019

A new type of tiny optical transistor uses an ultra-thin gold disc to capture light pulses and transfer them from waveguide to waveguide, chip to chip. These transistors, connected in an array, can speed up computers by using light rather than electrical current to transmit data.

Microscopic optical transistors that transmit data using light will make computers and other gadgets more efficient because light waves can transmit information faster. Particles of light, called photons, penetrate materials without interacting with the environment, as electrons do.

Until now, light transmission has not been proposed to speed up computers because the optical transistors that transmit light signals were too slow and used a lot of electricity.

New optical transistors have now been developed that can transmit signals in less than a millionth of a second, using about one volt, which is comparable to the voltages in other electronics. Computers equipped with a new development that uses light rather than electricity to transmit information will allow, for example, autonomous cars to scan the surrounding space with lightning speed or, say, read information from quantum computers.

Each optical transistor contains an ultra-thin gold disk suspended over a silicon wafer. When a small voltage is applied, the disk bends to one side or the other like a bowl or an umbrella. The orientation of the golden disc determines where the light will be directed.

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Ultra-clean diamond wafers with up to 25 EB of data 07.05.2022

One of the types of diamond point defects makes it possible to use it as a quantum bit for organizing calculations or storing data.

This can be hindered by the imperfection of the technology for growing ultra-pure diamond disks, which has become a challenge for scientists. The Japanese accepted the challenge and were able to find an interesting solution to the problem.

If at any site of the diamond crystal lattice one of the carbon atoms is replaced (bonded) by a nitrogen atom, then such a violation of the diamond crystal structure will be called a nitrogen-substituted vacancy in diamond or an NV center. Such a point defect has quantum properties that can be easily controlled by light, magnetic fields, or other influences even at room temperature. In particular, the NV center can be used to record and store data.

A feature of diamond structures with NV centers is that there should not be too much nitrogen. Therefore, for the practical use of diamond data carriers, it is necessary either to produce very large disks with admissible nitrogen impurities (so to speak, “smear” nitrogen over a large area), or to grow the purest diamonds with a strictly controlled amount of impurities, which is technically much more difficult.

Until now, ultrapure diamonds have barely exceeded 4 mm2 in area, which is extremely small. However, Japanese researchers at Saga University and Japan's Adamant Namiki Precision Jewelery have managed to develop a technology to grow ultra-pure diamond wafers with a diameter of 2 inches (5 cm). Theoretically, each such disc can store up to 25 EB of data, which is equivalent to recording a billion 25 GB Blu-Ray discs on one diamond medium.

The secret of success lies in the special structure of the substrate on which the diamond disc was grown. This is usually a flat, flat surface. During the growth process and in its early stages, ultra-pure diamond on such a surface often broke under its own weight. To prevent cracking, the scientists proposed a stepped substrate surface that would distribute the weight of the growing diamond more evenly. The new substrate made it possible to grow a very, very pure diamond with a diameter of 5 cm and a purity of 3^10-9. But the scientists did not rest on this and now they plan to grow a diamond twice as large in diameter.

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