Researchers are developing new transistors - a lifeline of all modern
electronics - which are powered by laser pulses and 10,000 faster than
present ones.
There are three basic types of solids: metals, semiconductors,
used in today's transistors, and insulators - also called dielectrics,
which do not conduct electricity and get damaged or break down if too
high of fields of energy are applied to them.
Scientists led by Georgia State University and Max Planck
Institute for Quantum Optics discovered that when dielectrics were given
very short and intense laser pulses, they start conducting electricity
while remaining undamaged.
The fastest time a dielectric can process signals is on the order
of 1 femtosecond the same time as the light wave oscillates and
millions of times faster than the second handle of a watch jumps.
Dielectric devices hold promise to allow for much faster
computing than possible today with semiconductors. Such a device can
work at 1 petahertz, while the processor of today's computer runs
slightly faster than at 3 gigahertz.
"Now we can fundamentally have a device that works 10 thousand
times faster than a transistor that can run at 100 gigahertz,"
researcher Mark Stockman said in a statement.
"This is a field effect, the same type that controls a
transistor. The material becomes conductive as a very high electrical
field of light is applied to it, but dielectrics are 10,000 times faster than semiconductors," he said.
At one time, scientists thought dielectrics could not be used in
signal processing - breaking down when required high electric fields
were applied. Instead, Stockman said, it is possible for them to work if
such extreme fields are applied at a very short time.
Stockman and his fellow researchers experimented with probing
optical processes in a dielectric - silica - with very short extreme
ultraviolet pulses.
They discovered the fastest process that can fundamentally exist
in condensed matter physics, unfolding at about at 100 attoseconds -
millions of times faster than the blink of an eye.
The scientists were able to show that very short, highly intense
light pulses can cause on-off electric currents - necessary in computing
to make the 1s and 0s needed in thebinary language of computers - in dielectrics, making extremely swift processing possible.
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