
Scientists Invent New Way to Control Light - Libertatea
http://today.ucf.edu/scientists-invent-new-way-control-light-critical-next-gen-super-computing/
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spott
This article is horrible. The paper is here:
[http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-22-21-2...](http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-22-21-25788)

First off, the reason you want light for transmission on chips isn't because
it is "faster", it is because it is less susceptible to electromagnetic
interference. The speed of light in a medium is the speed electronic signals
travel, and the speed light waves travel. However, electronic signals bleed
interference, and light waves don't. You also can switch light waves on and
off at theoretically higher rates, with less power, so optical signals can
break the 4 GhZ barrier we are currently stuck at.

Secondly, they can't bend light without loss. Just with less loss. But the
interesting part of the paper is the fact that the turning is selective
depending on polarization (one polarization turns, and one doesn't). They are
also able to turn light very quickly, compared to the wavelength of the light.
So the radius of curvature divided by the wavelength of the light is around
6.4 for this paper.

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beambot
> A device resembling a plastic honeycomb yet infinitely smaller than a bee’s
> stinger ...

"Infinitely smaller"....? That's horrible scientific reporting!

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DubiousPusher
It's literally infinitely smaller!

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TheSoftwareGuy
can anybody explain why this is better than a mirror?

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wtvanhest
Mirrors absorb and transmit light. This article from wiki explains what a
perfect mirror would be:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_mirror](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_mirror)

I believe the most important part of the article is:

"The team then ran light beams through the lattices and confirmed that they
could flow light (without loss) through turns that are twice as tight as any
done previously."

If you can bend light without loss, I imagine that is very valuable. All that
said, IANAP (I am not a physicist) so if someone else can correct me or add
more information, I'm sure that would be helpful.

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spott
It can't bend light without loss... It actually is pretty lossy (the paper
references an attenuation of 270 cm^-1, or 1/e loss per 270 cm.)

