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TECHFIND - PHOTONICS
Plastic Fiber Optics
An EU funded research team has developed the world's first all-optical high-speed switch for POF networks, a crucial step towards blisteringly fast optical data transmission. The technique, tested at the 520-nanometer wavelength (at which light appears green), involves using two beams of light from a single pulsed laser source in a special plastic optical fiber, the physical properties of which have been chemically modified, or doped, with photoactive polymers to change the way it transmits photons. By overlapping the light pulses in space and time it is possible to use one light pulse to cancel out the other, thus switching it from on to off and transmitting a data signal. And because of the specific properties of the doped POF the cancellation of the light is reversed within only a few hundred femtoseconds (one femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second). Not only will this increase data transmission rates in POF networks, but it could be used for time division multiplexing (TDM) to increase the bandwidth of optical networks beyond what is possible with current wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques. With bandwidth demands set to continue increasing, separating the signals at the transmission end and sorting them at the receiving end will require switching at rates that only an all-optical - as opposed to an optical-electronic solution - will be able to achieve.
Media Spiders®
An EU funded research team has developed the world's first all-optical high-speed switch for POF networks, a crucial step towards blisteringly fast optical data transmission. The technique, tested at the 520-nanometer wavelength (at which light appears green), involves using two beams of light from a single pulsed laser source in a special plastic optical fiber, the physical properties of which have been chemically modified, or doped, with photoactive polymers to change the way it transmits photons. By overlapping the light pulses in space and time it is possible to use one light pulse to cancel out the other, thus switching it from on to off and transmitting a data signal. And because of the specific properties of the doped POF the cancellation of the light is reversed within only a few hundred femtoseconds (one femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second). Not only will this increase data transmission rates in POF networks, but it could be used for time division multiplexing (TDM) to increase the bandwidth of optical networks beyond what is possible with current wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques. With bandwidth demands set to continue increasing, separating the signals at the transmission end and sorting them at the receiving end will require switching at rates that only an all-optical - as opposed to an optical-electronic solution - will be able to achieve. 
