UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PENNSYLVANIA, USA. Researchers have finally created the first ever all-optical photonic switch using cadmium sulfide nanowires. The photonic switches are combined together to form a logic gate which is the main component that processes information in all computer chips. With it, nanowires will be able to transmit and process information with just light pulses instead of using electricity.

We all know that newer and faster computers are being developed every year. With the creation of the all-optical switch, we might just be able to enjoy quantum computers which are so much faster than the current computer systems that we consider as high-end today. Researchers nowadays just won’t stop with the technology that we are currently using. They continue to discover new things that will make our everyday lives faster and more convenient in every way.

This first-ever all-optical photonic switch research was headed by associate professor Ritesh Agarwal and Brian Piccione, a graduate student of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. Other researchers who worked with them were Chang-Hee Cho and Lambert van Vugt who are also graduate students of the Materials Science Department.

The entire process started with the researchers cutting a gap into a nanowire. The next step was to pump enough energy into the first segment of the wire until it started to produce light from end to end through the gap they have initially created. Once they have the light in the second segment, they shine another light through it and turn off what is being transmitted through the wire. And that is basically what makes it a switch. Perhaps it will pave the wave for a future with consumer photonics instead of consumer electronics.