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Photonic-crystal lasers light up

Mar 10, 2004

Every laptop computer, PDA or mobile phone contains a microprocessor in which millions of interconnected transistors perform complex logical functions. Optical circuits, in contrast, are still at the pre-integrated- circuit stage. The optical fibres that form the backbone of the Internet, for example, are mostly connected individually between sources and detectors. Direct optical signal routing, on the other hand, would provide a reconfigurable network that fulfils the requirements of today’s bandwidth-hungry applications, such as video-on-demand. Optical routing could even be used inside computers to connect the central processing unit to its peripherals.

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