Bowtie-funnel combo best for conducting light; team found answer in undergrad physics equation
Running computers on virtually invisible beams of light rather than microelectronics would make them faster, lighter and more energy efficient. A version of that technology already exists in fiber optic cables, but they鈥檙e much too large to be practical inside a computer.
A 汤头条 team found the answer in a formula familiar to college physics students 鈥� a solution so simple and elegant, it was tough for reviewers to believe.聽; her doctoral student, Shuren Hu, and collaborators at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center and University of Technology in Troyes, France, published the proof in today鈥檚聽Science Advances, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal from聽AAAS.
They developed a structure that鈥檚 part bowtie, part funnel that concentrates light powerfully and nearly indefinitely, as measured by a聽scanning near field optical microscope.聽Only 12 nanometers connect the points of the bowtie. The diameter of a human hair is 100,000 nanometers.