'All-optical' computers! Is it possible?
The idea sound to be strange but Mark Summers, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student of the University of Alberta has already started to work on it to make it possible. He wants to make computer work on light instead of electricity.
The basic idea behind the theory is to replace the electrons with photons and control them simulate ones and zeros. Till now transistors control the flow of electricity with on-off switches.
He will implement Glancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) to build photonic crystals to nano-engineer a complicated three-dimensional architecture inside the columnar film. GLAD is similar to physical vapors deposition process with only difference that it uses the beam at an oblique angle (angle greater than 80 degree).
This high-energy electron beam transfers the silicon atoms form a column like structure. The inclined beam creates atomic shadow behind already deposited atoms to form columns on the substrate. The process is used for film microstructure control.
Summer has realized the construction of an all-optical computer into three stages"
The first stage will involve integrating optical interconnects between the various chips inside a computer increasing the bandwidth between the devices. The next stage is to integrate microelectronic circuits with microphotonic circuits, and the final stage will be everything optical, all the way to the human interface.
The development of such computer will be very useful as this computer will be extremely fast in processing a large amount of data. Reason for this is that it will use photons the energy packets which are an ideal information carriers with no mass of their own thus eliminating the problems associated with heat dissipation. So now, it will be possible to fit a lot more information at a particular wavelength in same amount of space. Usage of photons will also make it possible to fabricate as many components as possible on a single microchip as they do no interfere with each other and hence increasing the performance of the system. Moreover, we all know that photons are the fastest thing around; traveling at 168,000 miles each second so these computers will have the fastest information carriers.
All these features will make the 'all-optical computer' the fastest computer on earth.
Via: primidi
