RMIT researchers have developed a nanostructured thin film that can selectively filter light, significantly increasing the bandwidth of optical communication systems.
With the expanding demand for communication traffic and bandwidth, optical component and circuit designers find themselves squeezed between needing to meet requirements of increased performance and functionality, while continually reducing cost and size.
The balance between capacity and cost has thus far been held back my technological barriers, which prevent designers and communications companies from achieving the cost and integration levels needed for next-generation optical systems to be used in consumer electronics, industrial sensors and control systems, and optical communications.
Dr Jiao Lin, Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in the RMIT School of Engineering, collaborated with researchers from the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, Shenzhen University (China) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) to develop a nanostructured thin film that selectively filters light based on the polarisation of electromagnetic radiation.
The light can be transmitted down a very thin fibre of glass to the detector, which then converts the pulses of light into equivalent electrical pulses, allowing the data to be transmitted as light over great distances, and using current fibre optic networks.
“Applying this nanostructured thin film onto photodiodes in optical communication systems will significantly increase the bandwidth of optical communication systems by as much as 100 percent,” Dr Lin said.
“The nanostructured thin film also allows for easy integration with current optical communication systems.”