Video: New Quantum Dot Tech Could Boost Current Optical Fiber Band Tenfold
Opening Up New Optical Communications Wavelengths via NICT Current optical communications schemes rely on a narrow 1.55 micron wavelength band of about 10 terahertz, a band in which optical signals can be well controlled and loss of signal/data is fairly low. But to open up optical networks to the high data load of the future, we need to open up the span of available wavelength. And using a novel quantum dot technology, researchers at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan have done exactly that, to the tune of a roughly tenfold increase. They did so by creating a whole new process of quantum dot formation involving what's called a "sandwiched sub-nano separator structure." Conventionally, crystalline quantum dot structures are grown directly on a silicon surface, which leads to a somewhat uneven, disordered layer of dots. But by inserting an ultra-fine, sub-nanometer-thick separator structure in between the...