In a study that could lead to advances in the emerging fields of optical computing and nanomaterials, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology report that a new class of nanoscale slot waveguides pack 100 to 1,000 times more transverse optical force than conventional silicon slot waveguide
The findings could lead to advances in developing optical computers, sensors or lasers
The researchers created computer simulations of nanometer-scale models of metamaterial slot waveguides, which are structures designed to channel beams of light from one area to another. Waveguides function like tiny filaments or the wires of an integrated circuit, but on a much smaller scale.
For their study, the Missouri S&T researchers simulated slot waveguides made of layered structures of a metal (in this case, silver) and a dielectric material (germanium), arranged like the alternating bread and meat in a club sandwich. A nanometer -- visible only with the aid of a high-power electron microscope -- is one billionth of a meter, and some nanomaterials are only a few atoms in size.
research article, published in the Sept. 24 issue of Optics Express,
The findings could lead to advances in developing optical computers, sensors or lasers
The researchers created computer simulations of nanometer-scale models of metamaterial slot waveguides, which are structures designed to channel beams of light from one area to another. Waveguides function like tiny filaments or the wires of an integrated circuit, but on a much smaller scale.
For their study, the Missouri S&T researchers simulated slot waveguides made of layered structures of a metal (in this case, silver) and a dielectric material (germanium), arranged like the alternating bread and meat in a club sandwich. A nanometer -- visible only with the aid of a high-power electron microscope -- is one billionth of a meter, and some nanomaterials are only a few atoms in size.
research article, published in the Sept. 24 issue of Optics Express,
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