Scientists have successfully designed a laser amplifier that can make our internet 10 times faster. The new technology could not only bring about huge breakthroughs in internet consumption but also play an effective role in rendering vital services easier, such as e-education, streaming, gaming, AI, AR/VR, medical treatment, or telemedicine, etc.
Laser amplifiers boost the intensity of light beams. This particular amplifier achieves a tenfold increase in transmission speed by expanding the bandwidth, or wavelengths of light, at which the lasers can transmit information.
Current-day internet systems use laser light to send data through extremely thin fiber-optic cables. The volume of data these cables transmit depends on how much bandwidth the amplifier can support. The idea of bandwidth has only increased as the internet becomes a more dominant part of our lives for just about everything from entertainment, businesses, to connecting with our near and dear ones.
So, to make the signal travel long distances, amplifiers are used. Amplifiers use light particles, ‘photons’, that force another identical photon to release. This helps maintain signal strength and also reliability.
Now, scientists have pioneered a high-efficiency optical amplification technology that can transmit data at a higher speed.
“The amplifiers currently used in optical communication systems have a bandwidth of approximately 30 nanometers,” lead author Peter Andrekson, a professor of photonics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, added.. “Our amplifier, however, boasts a bandwidth of 300 nanometers, enabling it to transmit ten times more data per second than those of existing systems.”
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Silicon nitride to help make the internet speedier by 10 times
Scientists have developed a new amplifier that’s made of silicon nitride, which is more resilient to high temperatures. In this system, the amplifier uses spiral-shaped waveguides to direct laser pulses and remove interferences from the signal.
Researchers preferred to use spiral waveguides as they ensure the creation of a longer optical path in a small area. Well, the laser light doesn’t travel faster, but the larger bandwidth makes the new amplifier transmit signals 10 times faster than what conventional fiber networks do.
Researchers say that the amplifier operates in a wavelength range of light 1,400 to 1,700 nanometers. Now, the participants will see how it operates over other wavelengths.
“Minor adjustments to the design would enable the amplification of visible and infrared light as well,” Andrekson said. “This means the amplifier could be utilised in laser systems for medical diagnostics, analysis, and treatment. A large bandwidth allows for more precise analyses and imaging of tissues and organs, facilitating earlier detection of diseases.”