A group of scientists from Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology invented what could be world's first ever nanophotonic device that utilizes a special form of twisted lightwaves. The technology would allow encoding more data at 100 times faster than the conventional fiber optics.
The materials that scientists used to make the device are compatible with silicon-based materials, making the technology easier to commercialize for business use according to Min Gu, a professor at RMIT. He said the invention has high performance, is low cost, and in tiny size that makes it a more practical option.
The technology uses a special spiral light in a state of orbital angular momentum or OAM to carry data. When applied to existing fiber optics, OAM could increase the bandwidth and the fiber's processing speed by more than 100 times than its original capacity, Gu explained. Within the next couple of years, the technology would launch telecommunications in a new "exciting" level.
Gu added that the device can also receive quantum information, it could, therefore, be used in further developments of quantum communications and quantum computing research.
Australia's National Broadband Network or NBN, however, would have to say "pass" to the invention despite the existing possibilities the devise promises.
NBN is very much prepared for the future technological and customer demand, but RMIT's breakthrough would have to undergo numerous testing before it could get a green light, a spokesperson told The Guardian.
The spokesperson added that there are many communication breakthroughs undergoing trials in labs for the past years before they could get proper licenses for commercial release. Any invention would have to acquire approval from manufacturers and network operators before they could be ready for operational deployment, the spokesperson explained.
In a separate interview with Financial Review, a spokesperson also said NBN has just recently improved its fiber-optic backbone network. The upgrade would help meet the broadband needs of homes and businesses into the future, the spokesperson said.
The fiber optics currently use in the market today are heading towards a capacity crunch as they could no longer accommodate the demands of processing big data, said Haoran Ren from RMIT's School of Science.
The "already advanced fiber optics technology" used today, like those used by NBN, only uses a fraction of lights speed to carry data on the color spectrum. In comparison, the OAM could transmit data at nearly the speed of light while also massively increasing bandwidth along the way, Ren said.
