Graphene paves the way to faster high-speed optical communications

Graphene, among other materials, can capture photons, combine them, and produce a more powerful optical beam. This is due to a physical phenomenon called the optical harmonic generation, which is characteristic of nonlinear materials. Nonlinear optical effects can be exploited in a variety of applications, including laser technology, material processing and telecommunications.

Although all materials should present this behaviour, the efficiency of this process is typically small and cannot be controlled externally. Now, partners of the Graphene Flagship project in Cambridge (UK), Milan, and Genova (Italy) have demonstrated for the first time that graphene not only shows a good optical response, but also how to control the strength of this effect using an electric field.

Researches envision the creation of new graphene optical switches, which could also harness new optical frequencies to transmit data along optical cables, increasing the amount of data that can be transmitted.

Currently, most commercial devices using nonlinear optics are only used in spectroscopy. Graphene could pave the way towards the fabrication of new devices for ultra-broad bandwidth applications.

"Our work shows that the third harmonic generation efficiency in graphene can be increased by over 10 times by tuning an applied electric field," explains Giancarlo Soavi, lead author of the paper and researcher at the Cambridge Graphene Centre (University of Cambridge, UK).

"The authors found again something unique about graphene: tuneability of THG over a broad wavelength range. As more and more applications are all-optical, this work paves the way to a multitude of technologies," said said ICREA Professor Frank Koppens from ICFO (The Institute of Photonic Sciences), Barcelona, Spain, who is the leader of the Photonics and Optoelectronics Work Package within the Graphene Flagship.

Professor Andrea C. Ferrari, Science and Technology Officer of the Graphene Flagship, and Chair of its Management Panel, added how "graphene never ceases to surprise us when it comes to optics and photonics."

He also highlights that "the Graphene Flagship has put significant investment to study and exploit the optical properties of graphene. This collaborative work could lead to optical devices working on a range of frequencies broader than ever before, thus enabling a larger volume of information to be processed or transmitted."

Related Links
Graphene Flagship
Carbon Worlds - where graphite, diamond, amorphous, fullerenes meet

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Making carbon nanotubes as usable as common plastics
Evanston IL (SPX) May 18, 2018
Northwestern University's Jiaxing Huang is ready to reignite carbon nanotube research. And he's doing so with a common chemical that was once used in household cleaners. By using an inexpensive, already mass produced, simple solvent called cresol, Huang has discovered a way to make disperse carbon nanotubes at unprecedentedly high concentrations without the need for additives or harsh chemical reactions to modify the nanotubes. In a surprising twist, Huang also found that as the nanotubes' concent ... read more