{"id":4466,"date":"2016-06-28T12:28:35","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T16:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=4466"},"modified":"2016-06-28T12:28:35","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T16:28:35","slug":"going-all-optical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/going-all-optical\/","title":{"rendered":"Going All-Optical"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Illustration<\/a>\n

One one-millionth of a second may sound rather brief to most of us, but to Jacob\u00a0Khurgin,<\/a> professor of electrical and computer engineering,<\/a> it is eternity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen to the minus-sixth seconds,\u201d he muses, \u201cis way too slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khurgin believes that there could be a speedier way to process information than our computers are able to perform today. He and co-researchers at the National Taiwan University and the University of Massachusetts Boston theorize that an interface known as an all-optical switch that incorporates metallic nanoparticles could function 10,000 times faster than our plodding Neanderthal devices. Their paper was published in December in Scientific Reports, a Nature publication.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re keeping score, that would mean a switching speed of 1 ten-billionth of a second\u2014rather than a mere one-millionth\u2014inside the data centers that are the heart of our computer networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have long-range fiber-optic cables coming into our homes,\u201d says Khurgin, who shares a corner office in Barton Hall with his 3-year-old Gordon Setter dog, Professor Pinot Noir. \u201cIt would be nice to do all of our information processing optically. With an all-optical switch, you wouldn\u2019t have to transfer optical information into electronic information, consuming energy and real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge of optoelectronics, Khurgin explains, is to produce switches that are both powerful and fast, without producing heat and needing to be cooled down. The inclusion of a few atoms of metal impregnated into the optical interface seems to make the difference and could, as the team\u2019s paper states, \u201clead to low-power, ultrafast, all-optical devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khurgin is no stranger to moving quickly. A native of Saint Petersburg, he left the Soviet Union through a window of d\u00e9tente that opened only for a femtosecond, just before the 1980 Olympic Games were staged in Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we take a breath, eternity passes down there at the nanotime scale,\u201d he says. \u201cSomething is being born, something lives all its life, meets its friends and interacts, and leaves a memory. Sometimes I imagine myself as a little electron. It is a deeply philosophical way to think about the meaning of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One one-millionth of a second may sound rather brief to most of us, but to Jacob\u00a0Khurgin, professor of electrical and computer engineering, it is eternity. \u201cTen to the minus-sixth seconds,\u201d he muses, \u201cis way too slow.\u201d Khurgin believes that there could be a speedier way to process information than our computers are able to perform…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[408,407,406,405,131],"class_list":["post-4466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact","tag-computer-networks","tag-metallic-nanoparticles","tag-information-processing","tag-jacob-khurgin","tag-department-of-electrical-and-computer-engineering","issue-summer-2016"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoing All-Optical - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/going-all-optical\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Going All-Optical - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One one-millionth of a second may sound rather brief to most of us, but to Jacob\u00a0Khurgin, professor of electrical and computer engineering, it is eternity. \u201cTen to the minus-sixth seconds,\u201d he muses, \u201cis way too slow.\u201d Khurgin believes that there could be a speedier way to process information than our computers are able to perform...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/going-all-optical\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-28T16:28:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/GoingAllOptical_THUMB.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/going-all-optical\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/going-all-optical\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Going All-Optical\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-28T16:28:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/going-all-optical\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":351,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/going-all-optical\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/GoingAllOptical_THUMB.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"computer networks\",\"metallic nanoparticles\",\"information processing\",\"Jacob Khurgin\",\"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Impact\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/going-all-optical\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/going-all-optical\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/going-all-optical\\\/\",\"name\":\"Going All-Optical - 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