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Thursday, 12th November 2009 (2224 views)

Gold has been used to produce bowtie-shaped nanoantennas capable of capturing, filtering and steering light in tiny spaces.

Researchers at Berkeley Lab in California used four equilateral triangles made of gold that were lithographically patterned to create a cross shape.

Jim Schuck, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, said the nanoantennas act like TV or radio aerials by catching and concentrating energy, although the wavelengths are "much smaller".

The development could have significant implications for data transfer. At present, optical fibres use light to transport data with very high bandwidth, but there is a limit to the size of photonic circuit the light can be "squeezed into".

Current nanoscale electronic devices operate at frequencies far below those of fibre optics and have a much lower bandwidth, which reduces the amount of data carried.

"We've made the first engineered and nanofabricated structure for nanoscale light distribution that can ship and manipulate ultra-confined optical information with a knob [to] easily tune the energy or color of light," Mr Schuck said.

Berkley Labs employs 4,000 people and trains 800 university students a year. Since its establishment in 1931, 11 lab researchers have received the Nobel Prize.

 

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