Logic gates are basic components on integrated circuits. By irradiating graphene and gold with laser pulses, researchers at the University of Rochester have now developed the fastest logic gate ever The new logic gates are one million times faster than those used in existing computers, and prove the feasibility of "lightwave Electronics"
The logic gate accepts two inputs, compares them, and then outputs a signal according to the result. For example, if both input signals are 1 or 0, or one or both of them are not 1, they can output 1 and other "rules". Billions of independent logic gates are stuffed into chips to create processors, memory and other electronic components.
However, logic gates do not work in real time. When they process input, they have a nanoseconds delay. This is fast enough for modern computers, but there is always room for improvement. Now, Rochester's team's new logic gate has taken their speed to the extreme, processing information in femtoseconds, a million times shorter than nanoseconds.
To achieve these extreme speeds, the team made a junction of graphene wires connecting two gold electrodes. When graphene is impacted by a synchronous pair of laser pulses, the electrons in the material are excited, causing them to fly to one of the electrodes to generate an electric current.
By adjusting the phase of the laser pulse, the team was able to produce one of two charge carriers that can be added or offset each other - the former can be considered the output of 1 and the latter is 0.
Tobias boolakee, lead researcher of the study, said: "this technology may take a long time to be used in computer chips, but at least we now know that light wave electronic technology is actually feasible.".
If these types of light wave electronic devices really enter the market, they may be millions of times faster than today's computers. At present, we measure the processing speed in gigahertz (GHz), but the function of these new logic gates is based on Peter Hertz (PHZ). Previous studies have set it as the absolute quantum limit that light-based computer systems may reach.