Nanoscale photonic technology edges closer

One day, electronic technology, which is based on the manipulation of electrons, could be supplanted by photonics, which is based on the manipulation of light waves or photons.

Scientists with the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley, working with free-standing, chemically synthesised nanowires and nanoribbons, have been able to guide pulses of laser light through a variety of complex structures. They have even, for the first time ever, been able to send those pulses within a liquid.

“We’ve been able to assemble nanowire lasers and semiconductor nanoribbon waveguides into multi-wire model structures that illustrate how light can be transmitted between active and passive nanoscale diameter cavities,” said Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, and a professor with UC Berkeley’s Chemistry Department, who led this research. “We’ve also introduced a major new application area for nanoribbons and nanowires as nanoscale optical waveguides in a liquid media, which holds importance for microfluidics and biology.”