Physorg March 16, 2018
Researchers in the UK created an optical version of a diode by sending lots of light into a microresonator and harnessing the circulating optical power to generate the diode effect. As the microrings can store extremely large amounts of light, even though they were sending small amounts of light into the glass rings, the circulating power was comparable to the light generated by the flood lights. They have shown that the electromagnetic field of clockwise circulating light in these glass rings effectively blocks any counterclockwise circulating light. The research opens the door to cheap and efficient optical diodes, photonic chips, paves the way for integrated photonic circuits for optical computing and optical communication… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Credit: National Physical Laboratory