Emergency Response and Wireless Location Systems    by Manlio Allegra

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Topics: Main | Metro | Long-Haul | 10 Gbps | 40 Gbps | Components | All Optical Switching | PONs | Start-ups | Contracts | Standards | Videos | Archive   IBM Harnesses "Slow Light" for Optical Communications Researchers at IBM were able to slow light down to less than 1/300th of its usual speed by directing it down a carefully designed channel of perforated silicon called a "photonic crystal waveguide." The photonic crystal waveguide is a thin slab of silicon punctuated by regular arrays of holes that scatter light. The pattern and size of the holes gives the material a very high refractive index -- the higher the refractive index, the slower the light. Heating the waveguide locally with a small electrical current alters the refractive index, allowing the speed of light to be quickly tuned over a large range with very low applied electric power. IBM said the innovation opens the door to the possibility of complex light-based circuits with footprints not much larger than semiconductor circuits. The device was manufactured using a common CMOS processes. The report on this work, "Active control of slow light on a chip with photonic crystal waveguides" by Yurii A. Vlasov, Martin O'Boyle, Hendrik F. Hamann, and Sharee J. McNab of IBM's T.J.Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. is published in the November 3 issue of Nature. This work was partially supported by the Defense advanced Research Agency (DARPA) through the Defense Sciences Office program "Slowing, Storing and Processing Light". http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/news.20051103_photonics.html 03-Nov-05   No video on this topic yet.. contact us to present your views. Recent Optical News China Telecom to Accelerate FTTH and Mobile Rollouts Colt Deploys Infinera in Low-Latency European Backbone AppliedMicro to Acquire TPACK for Emerging OTN Hong Kong's PCCW Deploys Huawei's 40G OTN Level 3 Wins Networx Contract for Social Security Administration EXFO Adds Tunable DPSK Testing to its 40G/43G Solution PMC-Sierra Collaborates with Incognito Software on FTTx for MSOs VI Systems Ships First Circular VCSEL Arrays EXFO Boosts its Optical Spectrum Analyzer Russia's FORATEC Selects Ciena's CN 4200 EU's BIANCHO Project Targets Energy Efficient Photonic Components CALIENT and Freeport Offer Govt Teleconferencing NSN Supplies LH DWDM for First Communications NTT Adds 588,000 Optical Access Lines in Q2 EXFO Boosts its Blazer Multiservice Test Modules > More news... Learn How to Get Your Video on this Site   Search  this site   Search the Web   Get Your Column Published Emergency Response and Wireless Location Systems by Manlio Allegra Interview: NSN's Sue Spradley on LightSquared's Wholesale Mobile Data Paradigm by Sue Spradley Mobile Backhaul Transition Requires New Testing by Joe Zeto Cybersecurity Requires Public/Private Coalition by Greg Oslan A Rethinking of Cloud Services and Network Architecture by Jim Theodoras Delivering Scalable Video Solutions <br><i> Advantages of SVC-Optimized QoS</i> by Andy Singleton   E-mail Newsletter Subscribe Now