麻豆淫院

It's a paradox that has long vexed researchers in the field of optics.

To control a light source, another light source that uses as much energy鈥攊f not more鈥攊s often required. The setup works, but it's not efficient.

A new study reports that researchers have demonstrated a way to control light with light using one third鈥攊n some cases, even less鈥攐f the energy typically required. The advancement, coupled with other developments, could ultimately lead to more powerful, energy-efficient computer chips and other optics-based technologies.

"Typically, symmetry connotes harmony and beauty. But not in this case. We've developed technology鈥攁n asymmetric metawaveguide鈥攖hat enables a weak control laser beam to manipulate a much more intense laser signal," says Liang Feng, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University at Buffalo's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the study's lead author.

The study鈥�"Metawaveguide for Asymmetric Interferometric Light-Light Switching"鈥攚as published today (Oct. 31, 2016) in the journal 麻豆淫院ical Review Letters. It was co-authored by researchers at California Institute of Technology and the City University of New York.

The study reports that the metawaveguide鈥攁 tiny rectangular box made of silicon, the semiconducting material for computer chips鈥攃reates asymmetric reflections of the two beams of light, which enables the weaker beam to control the other beam.