Optical fiber microresonators show promise as optical memory

Researchers at OFS Technologies Somerset, NJ, say they have developed a precise and efficient way to construct microresonators by making nanoscale changes to the diameter of standard optical fiber. The researchers say this is “an essential step toward designing a practical optical computer.”

Optical computers, which use photons in place of electrons to process and store information, have the potential to be much faster than today’s electronic computers. But it has proven difficult to make the optical equivalent of a memory chip, in spite of extensive research in this area.

December 17, 2011

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