Scientists have discovered a new particle that may be the basis of future technological revolution based on photonic circuits, and lead to the development of ultra-fast computational methods on the basis of light. Currently the calculations are based on the electronics when the electrons are used to encode and transfer information. Due to certain fundamental limitations, such as loss of energy in the process resistive heat, it is expected that the replacement electrons come photons and will appear futuristic computers based on light, which will be much faster and more efficient electronic.
Physics from the University of Exeter have taken a major step towards this goal by discovering new particles, which are half light, half matter, and which derive a number of remarkable properties of graphene.
What will replace electronics?
The discovery opens the door to the developments of photonic circuits that use alternative particles, known as massless Dirac polaritons, to transmit information instead of electrons.
Dirac polaritons arise in cell metaphorist, which presented ultra-thin materials with designed nanoscale structures that are much smaller than the wavelength of light.
A unique feature of the Dirac particles is that they mimic relativistic particles with no mass, allowing them to travel very efficiently. This fact makes graphene one of the most conductive materials known to man.
However, despite the unusual properties of such materials are extremely difficult to control. For example, in graphene cannot be switched on and off electric currents using a simple electric potential, which limits the potential application of graphene in electronic devices. This fundamental flaw — lack of customizability — was successfully overcome by physicists from the University of Exeter.
Scientists have shown that by embedding cell setpowermode between two reflecting mirrors and changes a distance between them, you can configure fundamental properties of Dirac polaritons simple, manageable and reversible manner. It was achieved because the Dirac polaritons are a mixture of the components of light and matter. It is this hybrid nature allows you to configure their basic properties, manipulating only the light component, which is not possible in graphene.
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Ilya Hel