Squeezing light into a tiny channel brings optical computing a step closer
ELECTRONICS AND ITS GROWTH. Squeezing light into a tiny channel brings optical computing a step closer These are nanofocusing and optical mode properties of the organic hybrid gap plasmon waveguide on the silicon platform used for degenerate four-wave mixing. The insets depict the scaled electromagnetic mode distributions for a wide metal gap of 500 nm and a narrow metal gap of 25 nm, along with the chemical formula for MEH-PPV. By forcing light to go through a smaller gap than ever before, researchers have paved the way for computers based on light instead of electronics. Light is desirable for use in computing because it can carry a higher density of information and is much faster and more efficient than conventional electronics. However, light does not easily interact with itself, so while it can be used to move information quickly, it is not very good at processing information. For example, light is currently used to transfer information over long distances, s...