The use of light instead of electricity in doing calculations is a method known as optical computing. It creates a substantial difference between conventional computers and the quantum computers. Through optical computing, hypothetical devices can make special types of computations that are incredibly faster than the good old classical computers.
However, optical computing needs light particles such as photons in order to modify their behaviour. This is something that may be hard to achieve and the reason is quite simple. When two photons collide in a vacuum, they tend to just pass through each other.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Research Laboratory of Electronics, Vienna University of Technology, and Harvard University collaborated to figure out how to manipulate the behaviour of the photons in which they were able to create an optical switch which can be controlled by a single photon thus governing light transmission. It is then referred to as a transistor’s optical analog which is the main component found in a computing circuit.
The result of their study was published on an online journal Science.
Additionally, quantum physics and its strange, counterintuitive effects are more visible in individual particles as compared with those that are in clusters. Hence, the use of a single photon when flipping the switch could come in handy for quantum computing.
The heart of the above-mentioned switch is made up of a pair of mirrors that are highly reflective. If the switch is turned on, there is an optical signal or a beam of light that passes through the mirrors. If the switch is turned off, the light that passes through is reduced by 20 percent.
The two mirrors are used as optical resonator. Vladan Vuletic, MIT’s Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics, explains in the report that when there’s only one mirror, all the light that passes through would just come back. On the other hand, something weird happens when you use two mirrors instead of one. The distance between these two mirrors should be exactly calculated to the wavelength of the light. When the right wavelength is achieved, the mirrors suddenly become transparent to light.
The main advantage of optical computing is power management. The amount of consumed energy in computing devices is something that we shouldn’t ignore. The biggest advantage of switching in the single-photon level is the energy that is saved in every bit. The bit is naturally included in one single photon.
Vuckovic believes that the result of their study may be used in the enhancement of computer chips which may result to faster computers with longer battery life.
