Thursday, 16th June 2005 (4509 views)

Researchers have found a way to combine visible light and nanotechnology successfully, previously a problem area for scientists.

A team from the University of Basel in Switzerland have made a dipole antenna from strips of gold 45-nanometres wide and around 190-400 nanometres long, according to new Scientist.

The nanoscale optical antenna works in a similar way to a radio antenna and could help transfer light to and from optical fibres.

In addition, they could help to build highly integrated photonic circuits and let data be stored on optical discs at much bigger densities.

According to the researchers, the antenna could lead to single photon light emitters that could be used in quantum computation and communications.

Visible light had previously caused problems before Bert Hecht and his team made their discoveries, since it has a wavelength of 400 to 700 nanometres, but nanotech structures were formerly measured in tens of nanometres.

 

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