The transmission of information is a phenomenon at the core of humanity, and as technology advances, we have been able to do it more and more rapidly. But according to a study published in Nature Photonics, the latest record is so mind-boggling that we have to compare it to the entire internet to understand its speed.
Using a single laser and a single optical chip, the researchers were able to transmit 1.8 petabits per second. One petabit is the same as 1 million gigabits, and this amount of information is equivalent to twice the global internet traffic.
This feat seems incredible and is due to an optical chip designed as a “frequency comb”, a device that can convert laser light into a rainbow of frequencies. The frequencies are each equally spaced like the teeth of a comb, and each can carry its own data stream, which is then transmitted via fiber optics. It takes 1,000 lasers to achieve the same data transmission without using this method. Interestingly, although this system was not created with fiber optic transmission in mind, it is quite successful in this regard.
Victor Torres Company, head of the research group that developed the chip and professor at Chalmers University of Technology, said in a statement: “The peculiarity of this chip is that it produces a frequency comb with ideal properties for fiber optic communications – it has high optical power and a wide bandwidth within the spectral region, which is interesting for advanced optical communications. “In fact, some characteristic parameters were obtained by chance and not by design. However, with the efforts of my team, we are now able to reverse the process and achieve highly repeatable micro honeycombs for target applications in telecommunications.”
The team also modeled the chip, demonstrating that it could make transmission 50 times faster in the future. The ability to use a single laser to carry such a large amount of information would greatly reduce the energy needs of telecommunications technologies.
Professor Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe of the Technical University of Denmark said: “In other words, our solution offers the potential to replace the hundreds of thousands of lasers found in internet centers and data centers, all of which consume power and generate heat. “We have the opportunity to contribute to achieving an Internet with a smaller climate footprint.”
Like many other groups and institutions around the world, the team is trying to integrate the laser and other components into the chip itself, making it more efficient and even less energy consuming.
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