New Optical Switch Up to 1000x Faster Than Transistors
In reality, all-optical computing is mostly a terrible idea: fundamentally, it cannot reach the integration density of electronics. It boils down to the elementary differences between Fermions (electrons, neutrons, etc.) and Bosons (photons, etc.). Their intrinsic behavior determines the interaction with matter, i.e. conductive/absorptive properties. As a result, optical wires (waveguides) have to be sized roughly at a wavelength (hundreds of nm), whereas electrical wires can be much smaller (<30nm and below). Suppose you want to build an amplifier: all the claimed speed benefits of this optical device would vanish in the path delay of the feedback loop.<p>But just like graphene, carbon nanotubes, and other fads, you can publish fancy papers with it.