New process builds electronic function into optical fiber

User rating: 4 / 5 after 15 vote(s)

These photos show a glass fiber with a bundle of semiconductor wires emanating from it. Each wire is just 2 microns in diameter--20 times smaller than a human hair. The glass fiber is glowing from blue laser light. One of the images shows the wire-pa ...
These photos show a glass fiber with a bundle of semiconductor wires emanating from it. Each wire is just 2 microns in diameter--20 times smaller than a human hair. The glass fiber is glowing from blue laser light. One of the images shows the wire-packed glass fiber passing through the eye of a needle. Credit: Neil Baril, Penn State.

Optical fiber helped bring us the Internet, and silicon/germanium devices brought us microelectronics. Now, a joint team from Penn State University and the University of Southampton has developed a new way to combine these technologies. The team has made semiconductor devices, including a transistor, inside microstructured optical fibers. The resulting ability to generate and manipulate signals inside optical fibers could have applications in fields as diverse as medicine, computing, and remote sensing devices.


Full story »
All News summaries from Physics news
All News summaries for March 16, 2006

Researchers team up to probe iron-arsenic superconductors with new instrument

Oct 10, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory are part of collaborative team that's used a brand new instrument at the DOE's Spallation Neutron Source to probe iron-arsenic compounds, the "hottest" new find ...

New spintronics effect could lead to magnetic batteries

Oct 10, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have recently discovered that heating one side of a magnetized nickel-iron rod causes electrons to rearrange themselves according to their spins. This so-called "spin Seebeck effect" ...

Ripple effect: Water snails offer new propulsion possibilities

Oct 09, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A UC San Diego engineer has revealed a new mode of propulsion based on how water snails create ripples of slime to crawl upside down beneath the surface.

Spallation Neutron Source sends first neutrons to 'Big Bang' beam line

Oct 09, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
New analytical tools coming on line at the Spallation Neutron Source, the Department of Energy's state-of-the-art neutron science facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, include a beam line dedicated to ...

Cosmic strings might emit cosmic sparks, answer cosmological questions

Oct 09, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- For astronomers, understanding what happened in the early moments of the universe could answer many questions in physics and astronomy. One possible player in the early universe is cosmic strings, which arise ...
Goto Archive PhysOrg Forum Goto Archive Video Goto Archive Editorials Goto Archive Free Magazines Goto Archive Newsletter

News Archive