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takyon writes:

Researchers at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich have created an optical switch (modulator) orders of magnitude smaller than those currently in use:

Six months ago, a working group led by Jürg Leuthold, Professor of Photonics and Communications already succeeded in proving that the technology could be made smaller and more energy-efficient. As part of that work, the researchers presented a micromodulator measuring just 10 micrometres across – or 10,000 times smaller than modulators in commercial use (see ETH News).

Leuthold and his colleagues have now taken this to the next level by developing the world's smallest optical modulator. And this is probably as small as it can get: the component operates at the level of individual atoms. The footprint has therefore been further reduced by a factor of 1,000 if you include the switch together with the light guides. However, the switch itself is even smaller, with a size measured on the atomic scale. The team's latest development was recently presented in the journal Nano Letters.

In fact, the modulator is significantly smaller than the wavelength of light used in the system. In telecommunications, optical signals are transmitted using laser light with a wavelength of 1.55 micrometres. Normally, an optical device can not be smaller than the wavelength it should process. "Until recently, even I thought it was impossible for us to undercut this limit," stresses Leuthold.

Atomic Scale Plasmonic Switch (DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04537)

Original Submission