Surface plasmons squeeze light
March 24, 2006 | Source: physicsweb
Physicists in Denmark and France have developed a new class of waveguide that could get round one of the biggest obstacles to photonic circuits. The devices allow light at telecommunications wavelengths to be “squeezed” to below the diffraction limit, allowing it to pass though small regions such as channels on a chip without being significantly lost.
These photonic circuits could manipulate light pulses directly and therefore increase data rates.