A new study published in Nature Photonics has been carried out by researchers from the Department of Physics at the Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology of the National Research Council (CNR-IFN) and international research centres.
Aim of the study
The study, led by Giulio Cerullo, full professor in the Department, uses extremely short light pulses to perform ultra-fast logical operations.
Traditional computers operate through the movement of electric charges within transistors, a mechanism that limits the maximum processing speed. The new approach, however, directly manipulates the state of electrons in materials through light field oscillations, enabling logical operations to be performed at significantly higher frequencies.
As Giulio Cerullo explains, thanks to ultra-short laser pulses, it is possible to control the quantum states of matter on timescales of the order of femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth of a second), corresponding to the oscillation frequencies of light.
How the experiments were conducted
The experiments are based on the use of a two-dimensional semiconductor, tungsten disulphide (WS₂), which is just a few atomic layers thick.
Using sequences of laser pulses lasting just a few femtoseconds, the researchers succeeded in selectively switching on, switching off and amplifying information signals, achieving operations at frequencies exceeding 10 terahertz: over a hundred times higher than those of the most advanced electronic devices currently available. This result paves the way for new technologies in information processing.
The research team
In addition to Giulio Cerullo, the project was contributed to by professors Stefano Dal Conte and Margherita Maiuri, together with researchers Francesco Gucci, Mattia Russo and Franco Camargo, the latter from CNR-IFN.
The full study is available at the following link.