“Time Telescopes” Could Make Data Transfer 27 Times Faster
Mark Foster and Alexander Gaeta‘s team at Cornell Universityhave figured out a way to pack more data into the pulses of light that carry data through the worldwide network of fiber optics. They are calling their approach a “time telescope,” and say it has the potential to increase fiber optic data speeds by 27 times.
They pass pulses of light, carrying data of course, through two “time lenses” - a silicon waveguide that combines a passing (data-carrying) light pulse with another infrared laser pulse in a way that causes the two pulses to be crushed together “like a soda can that’s been stepped on,” with the rear catching up to the front right at the lens’s focal point.
The result is that using the same fiber channels that already span the globe, we could pack 27 times more information with a decompression lag at the receiving end of only a millisecond.
Read the full article here Popular Science. Another good writeup is found in the New Scientist.
