Researchers have optical cables, which electronics is built in. The electronics, in the form of crystalline components, is a fixed part of the glass fibers, leading to improved optical components.
In conventional optical networks are the optical fibres, which enable information in the form of light is transported, separated from the electronics. Converting information of electrons into photons is a bottleneck, for which various manufacturers to find a solution. One of the methods of electronic and optical signals to unite, is a field that is silicon photonics is called, but researchers from the universities of Southampton and Penn State have designed an alternative.
They integrated a so-called junction in a fiber by layers of semi-conductors around very small holes in the fiberglass to inject. As the light pulses through the fiber along the area with the crystalline semiconductor traveling, the optical light pulses is converted into an electrical signal. The team used for this purpose include silicon oxide, and electrodes of platinum.
The production method of the hybrid optical fibres would be considerably simpler and cheaper than conventional chipproductie. The new glass fibre could be applied in high-speed optical networks for telecommunications.
