DNA could be backbone of next generation logic chips

From Pysorg.com:

In a single day, a solitary grad student at a lab bench can produce more simple logic circuits than the world's entire output of silicon chips in a month.

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New Path To Solar Energy Via Solid-State Photovoltaics

From PhysOrg.com:

Berkeley Lab researchers have found a new mechanism by which the photovoltaic effect can take place in semiconductor thin-films. This new path to energy production brightens the future for photovoltaic technology by overcoming voltage limitations that plague conventional solid-state solar cells.

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The world's smallest microlaser

From PhysOrg.com:

ETH-Zurich physicists (Switzerland) have developed a new kind of laser that shatters the boundaries of possibility: it is by far the smallest electrically pumped laser in the world and one day could revolutionize chip technology.

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'Microrings' could nix wires for communications in homes, offices

From PhysOrg.com:

Purdue University researchers have developed a miniature device capable of converting ultrafast laser pulses into bursts of radio-frequency signals, a step toward making wires obsolete for communications in the homes and offices of the future.

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IBM Scientists Create Ultra-Fast Device Which Uses Light for Communication between Computer Chips

From PhysOrg.com:

IBM scientists today unveiled a significant step towards replacing electrical signals that communicate via copper wires between computer chips with tiny silicon circuits that communicate using pulses of light. As reported in the recent issue of the scientific journal Nature, this is an important advancement in changing the way computer chips talk to each other.

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New device for ultrafast optical communications

From PhysOrg.com:

A new device invented by engineers at UC Davis could make it much faster to convert pulses of light into electronic signals and back again. The technology could be applied to ultrafast, high-capacity communications, imaging of the Earth's surface and for encrypting secure messages.

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Laser adds extra dimension to lab-on-chip

From PhysOrg.com:

A European research project has shown how to build optical sensors directly into the structure of labs-on-chips. The breakthrough paves the way for on-the-spot medical diagnostics.

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Digging deep into diamonds, physicists advance quantum science and technology

From >PhysOrg.com:

By creating diamond-based nanowire devices, a team at Harvard has taken another step towards making applications based on quantum science and technology possible.

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Scientists turn light into electrical current using a golden nanoscale system

From PhysOrg.com:

Material scientists at the Nano/Bio Interface Center of the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated the transduction of optical radiation to electrical current in a molecular circuit. The system, an array of nano-sized molecules of gold, respond to electromagnetic waves by creating surface plasmons that induce and project electrical current across molecules, similar to that of photovoltaic solar cells.

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First germanium laser brings us closer to 'optical computers'

From PhysOrg.com:

MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication. It’s also the first germanium laser to operate at room temperature. Unlike the materials typically used in lasers, germanium is easy to incorporate into existing processes for manufacturing silicon chips. So the result could prove an important step toward computers that move data -- and maybe even perform calculations -- using light instead of electricity. But more fundamentally, the researchers have shown that, contrary to prior belief, a class of materials called indirect-band-gap semiconductors can yield practical lasers.

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Compressing photonic signals for greater bandwidth

From PhysOrg.com:

Cornell researchers have developed an ingenious method to time-compress optical signals. The process could enable optical communication systems to carry many more bits per second or could also be used to generate short bursts of light with complex waveforms needed to control chemistry and physics experiments where changes are induced by light.

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Running electronics using light

From PhysOrg.com:

"If you open up almost any electronic gadget, you will see various elements that operating using electric circuitries," Nader Engheta tells PhysOrg.com. "Many of them have different functionalities, such as inductors, capacitors, resistors, transistors, and so forth. These well-known elements have been around for decades. But what if you could bring these concepts to the nanoscale, and what if they could operate with light instead of electricity?"

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Going plasmonic in search of faster computing, communications

From PhysOrg.com:

A team of European researchers has demonstrated some of the first commercially viable plasmonic devices, paving the way for a new era of high-speed communications and computing in which electronic and optical signals can be handled simultaneously.

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World's smallest semiconductor laser heralds new era in optical science

From PhysOrg.com:

The achievement helps enable the development of such innovations as nanolasers that can probe, manipulate and characterize DNA molecules; optics-based telecommunications many times faster than current technology; and optical computing in which light replaces electronic circuitry with a corresponding leap in speed and processing power.

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Optical Transistor Made From Single Molecule

From ScienceDaily:

ETH Zurich researchers have successfully created an optical transistor from a single molecule. This has brought them one step closer to an optical computer.

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New technique to compress light could open doors for optical communications

New technique to compress light could open doors for optical communications from PhysOrg.com

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have devised a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever thought possible, potentially opening doors to new technology in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers and optical computers.

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