New organic material may give Internet 'superfast' speeds

London, March 16 (ANI): An International team of scientists have developed an organic material that may one day enable the Internet to work at "superfast" speeds.

Ivan Biaggio, an associate professor of physics at Lehigh University and member of the research team, says that the novel material has been developed with an unprecedented combination of high optical quality and strong ability to mediate light-light interaction.

He says that the integration of the novel material has been engineered with silicon technology so that it can be used in optical telecommunication devices.

He has revealed that the material is composed of small organic molecules with high non-linear optical susceptibilities.

It can cover the gap that separate silicon waveguides, which control the propagation of light beams on an integrated optical circuit.

"We have been able to make thin films by combining the molecules into a material that is perfectly transparent, flat, and free of any irregularities that would affect optical properties," Nature magazine quoted Biaggio as saying.

The slot between the waveguides is the region where most of the light guided by the silicon propagates.

Biaggio and his colleagues say that by filling the slot, the molecules add an ultra-fast all-optical switching capability to silicon circuitry, creating a new ability to perform the light-to-light interactions necessary for data processing in all-optical networks.

A research article describing the material has been published in the journal Nature Photonics. (ANI)