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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Now, an international team of researchers—including researchers from Oxford University's Department of Materials, the University of Münster, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Exeter—has produced the world's first all-photonic nonvolatile memory chip [phys.org]. The new device uses the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST)—the same as that used in rewritable CDs and DVDs—to store data. This material can be made to assume an amorphous state, like glass, or a crystalline state, like a metal, by using either electrical or optical pulses. In a paper published in Nature Photonics, the researchers describe the device they've created, which uses a small section of GST on top of a silicon nitride ridge, known as a waveguide, to carry light.

The team has shown that intense pulses of light sent through the waveguide can carefully change the state of the GST. An intense pulse causes it to momentarily melt and quickly cool, causing it to assume an amorphous structure; a slightly less-intense pulse can put it into an crystalline state.

Later, when light with much lower intensity is sent through the waveguide, the difference in the state of the GST affects how much light is transmitted. The team can measure that difference to identify its state—and in turn read off the presence of information in the device as a 1 or 0. 'This is the first ever truly non-volatile integrated optical memory device to be created,' explains Clarendon Scholar and DPhil student Carlos Ríos, one of two lead authors of the paper along with Matthias Stegmaier. 'And we've achieved it using established materials that are known for their long-term data retention—GST remains in the state that it's placed in for decades.'

What's the most likely application for this power, AI, VR, or other?

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