Ildar Gabitov is professor at Arizona State University and head of Photonics and Quantum Materials Center of the "Skolthech." He focuses on high-speed long range data transmission as well as metamaterials' nonlinear effects. His last project is devoted to surface phenomena on material-insulator borders, including topological insulators.
As of now, Ildar Gabitov also collaborates with researchers from ITMO University — they work on linking of quantum communication technologies with high-speed data transfer systems.
The first point the researcher mentioned was a problem of metamaterials, which is one of the topical issues in this field. "Why did metamaterials become so popular? When optical fiber replaced electric cables, it became possible to transmit large amounts of data. This became a revolution in the field of data transfer. However, information processing technologies didn’t make any breakthrough. Researchers tried to bridge this gap for a long time by working on optical data processing, but met many challenges."
For the last decade, the world’s academic community has been waiting for progress in metamaterials' development. However, according to Mr. Gabitov, aside from several achievements, there has been no breakthrough so far. Today the most promising technologies based on metamaterials are in the field of optical acoustic visualization of biological objects — metal nanoparticles are implemented into a tissue, then, affected by ultrasonic vibrations they "illuminate" the tissue from the inside. It is a very promising technology, though it is yet to be ready for clinical use.
Currently researchers try to develop compatible technologies that integrate electronic and photonic components.
"Why are mobile phones so popular? They are compact and multifunctional. First, one created electron tubes, then transistors, microchips. As time went these technologies became more compact. A phone, for instance, has about a million transistors. If vacuum tubes were used for this purpose, they would spread a territory equal to two quarters, and consume tons of electricity, and would always burn out. It means that the quantity changes of electronic elements resulted in increasing the quality of these technologies. However, the upcoming progress cannot follow the same way."
It is known that the wavelength of light in telecommunication band equals to 1,500 nanometers. However, modern technologies use a length of seven nanometers. That is why it is very challenging to develop high-integrated optical devices using approaches applied to electronics. It leads to such limitations as extensive heat liberation, or using of only a single electron per one logic operation. The last one can result in disappearing of a charge because of such a small charge carrier. Another problem is the wires that can provoke capacity and inductivity losses.
Furthermore, it is very difficult to apply printing methods used in electronics to photonic devices. That is why hybrid systems are so popular now. Researchers are working on it, but all such projects are still in progress.
"We cannot even imagine what benefits integrated photonic devices can give, like 15 years ago we couldn’t predict mobile phones' progress."
There is also necessity to solve such problems as how to connect photonic elements. Unlike transistors, they cannot be connected by a wire. And how to make new optical elements work even if some of the logic operations fail? We have more questions than answers.
