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Metamaterials can be designed to interact with light in strange ways. By carefully structuring metal arrays at the nanoscale, for example, physicists can cloak an object from microwaves, or make superlenses that focus in on objects too small to be seen with conventional optics.

Now physicists have made designs for metamaterial optical fibers. Conventional optical fibers carry telecommunications data and are important components of some sensors and medical equipment. Fibers made up of metamaterials could carry light in ways that aren't possible using naturally existing materials.

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23393/

Graphene, which was discovered at the University in 2004, is a one-atom-thick crystal with unusual highly conductive properties, which has quickly become one of the hottest topics in physics and materials science. It is also tipped for a number of future applications in electronics and photonics.

But research published recently by Professor Andre Geim and Dr Kostya Novoselov, who led the group that discovered graphene in 2004, suggests its uses could be far greater.

As part of the research, published today in the leading scientific journal Science, Professor Geim and Dr Novoselov have used hydrogen to modify highly conductive graphene into a new two-dimensional crystal - graphane.

But instead of being highly conductive, like graphene, the new substance graphane has insulating properties.

Source: http://www.physorg.com/news152545648.html

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created nanoscale particles that can self-assemble into various optical devices. By controlling how densely the tiny silver particles assemble themselves, the researchers can make several different kinds of devices, including photonic crystals. The self-assembling materials could be made cheaply and on a large scale. As a result, the silver nanoparticles could be used to make metamaterials, color-changing paints, components for optical computers, and ultrasensitive chemical sensors, among many other potential applications.

Led by Peidong Yang, a professor of chemistry at Berkeley, the researchers have demonstrated that they can use the nanoparticles to increase the sensitivity of arsenic detection by an order of magnitude. They also made a very robust kind of photonic crystal called a plasmonic crystal. These new structures are "similar to photonic crystals, but better," says Peter Nordlander, a professor of physics at Rice University, who was not involved in the work. Photonic crystals allow some wavelengths of light to pass while filtering out others. They're used commercially to coat lenses and mirrors and in optical fibers; they could also be used in optical computers.

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21636/?a=f

University of Sydney physicists have developed an optical chip that could potentially improve ‘Internet speeds to up to 100 times faster than current Australia’s networks.’ According to the Sydney Morning Herald, these chalcogenide glass photonic chips will be very cheap to produce as they’re based on plain glass.

As the lead researcher said, ‘we are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more.’ He adds that these chips could be scaled to operate at data rates approaching 640 Gb/s — the equivalent to transmitting approximately 17 complete DVDs per second! These chips could be commercially available in 5 years with the possible first network deployments in Japan.

This research project has been led for 4 years by Professor Ben Eggleton, Director of the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) at the University of Sydney.

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=977

For now, full-fledged quantum computers are the stuff of science fiction — in last summer's blockbuster movie Transformers, the bad guys use quantum computing to break into the U.S. Army's secure files in just 10 seconds flat.

But Prem Kumar, the AT&T Professor of Information Technology in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the director of the Center for Photonic Communication and Computing, and his research group are one step closer to realizing that technology — though for far better purposes. The group recently demonstrated one of the basic building blocks for distributed quantum computing using entangled photons generated in optical fibers, and their research was published in the April 4 edition of Physical Review Letters.

"Because it is done with fiber and the technology that is already globally deployed, we think that it is a significant step in harnessing the power of quantum computers," Kumar says.

Source: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/354