New Molecules for a Faster Internet

Roland Piquepaille writes "An international team of researchers has discovered a new generation of optical molecules which interact 50% more strongly with light than any molecules ever tested. These organic molecules, known as chromophores, have been theorized by physicists at Washington State University, synthesized by chemists in China and tested for their actual optical properties by chemists in Belgium. But if they're excellent candidates for being used in optical technologies such as optical switches and Internet connections, these new materials should not be used before several years — if ever. Read more for additional details and a picture of the physicist who broke a law he established in 1999."

Re:RTF(Primary Source)A

[kebes]

Well I am a chemist... and in fact my Ph.D. thesis had alot to do with these kinds of chromophores!

Yes the molecules in question are "azobenzenes [wikipedia.org]" (benzenes linked via N=N) and "stilbenes [wikipedia.org]" (benzenes linked via C=C). These are well-established classes of molecules that have strong "nonlinear optical" properties.

The reason they are "nonlinear optical molecules" is because (in basic terms) the electron distribution is highly asymetric. You can see the chemical structures in the arXiv preprint [arxiv.org] (pdf). One end of the molecule has a group that 'attracts' electrons, and the other end has a group that 'donates' electrons, and the end result is that the electron distribution is strongly skewed. This means that when light hits the molecule, the electron cloud oscillates not like a normal sine wave (harmonic oscillator) but in a much more skewed way (think of a sawtooth wave). This means that when it re-emits light, that light can be very different from the incident light.

That's why these molecules can be used as amplifiers in lasers, and "frequency doublers" (where you input a certain frequency of laser light, and what comes out has double the frequency (i.e. half the wavelength)). They are remarkable molecules, really. This new paper is certainly noteworthy, but I'm not sure it's going to revolutionize the world of telecommunications anytime soon...

Puhleease: Put Roland Piquepaille blog elsewhere

[viking80]

I would like to just suggest a link to Roland Piquepailles blog somewhere where those who are interested can click. And *no more articles please*

I read /. to get real news and facts, and see discussions from people with insight.
Roland Piquepailles submissions has not met this criterium. And again, chromophores has nothing to do with the speed of the internet.

You should mod this up if you agree or mod away as flamebait/offtopic/troll if you dont agree, but at least mod it.