Light-field control of real and virtual charge carriers

https://singularityhub.com/2022/05/23/new-logic-gates-are-a-million-times-faster-than-todays-chips/

67 21 4 years ago

pvinis• 4 years ago

very cool

cudgy• 4 years ago

“Obviously, the setup is vastly larger and more complex than the simple arrangement of transistors used for conventional logic gates, and shrinking it down to the scales required to make practical chips will be a mammoth task.”

Just need some yet invented nanolasers for this to work I guess, but this is still a fascinating approach.

gala8y• 4 years ago

What if they shrink this technology, yet to the size greater than modern chips and we land with equivalent of 50's main-frames, but much faster? Of course I have no idea on energies required, speed/size-distance trade-offs, etc.

simonh• 4 years ago

More a light detector than a logic gate really. To chain them together in a chip you’d need micron scale directional light emitters that also had signal to emission times at logic gate speed, and also consumed no more power and release no more heat than current logic gates. Otherwise you’re back to square one again because as the article points out it’s the power consumption that’s one of the major constraints and lasers consume a crapton of power. I don’t see how something like this could ever be practical.

This effect might be useful in optical communications systems though, where scale and power consumption isn’t as much of a constraint.

ekkeke• 4 years ago

This was my first thought too. How are they planning on chaining these together? Sounds like a non-starter.

greenbit• 4 years ago

There's a quite significant difference between having one pulse that lasts a quadrillionth of a second, and sustaining a quadrillion pulses per second ..

mgdlbp• 4 years ago

Recently discussed:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31356109 – 2022-05-12 (106 comments)

tempodox• 4 years ago

Clickbait rumors die hard.

stunpix• 4 years ago

Personally, I’m tired of these clickbait titles. I’ve read similar ones “x now is y times better/faster/efficient” countless times last two decade or so for batteries, transistors, ai, chips, cars, whatever you name it. The reality: industry for some reason doesn’t leap insanely with new technologies every two-five years after such or similar claims but it’s slowly crawling for decades…

workingon• 4 years ago

That’s how basic research works though. If you were older you’d be starting the see the results of the clickbait science from 40-50 years ago.

zaik• 4 years ago

...results of a small amount of the clickbait science from 40-50 years ago

amelius• 4 years ago

"Transistor million times smaller than vacuum tube!"

At least they were somewhat right initially, and eventually they were even too modest.

sennight• 4 years ago

Basic research is conducted without consideration to commercial exploitation. Think research in time reversal symmetry physics... try to making a buck off that. This article is the direct opposite of basic research, at least according to the authors of the abstract page: They cite a bunch of prior research on the mechanics underlying the paper and then say "However, a link between the generation of the carrier types and their importance for observables of technological relevance is missing." Translation: "We think we found an industrial application".

Actual progress is very slow, even when the technology is already out of the lab - it can easily be decades of waiting before making it into the hands of everyone who'd benefit. Like dialup modems... the tech behind that had not only been available, but already applied to the task, years before the number of people aware of it grew beyond military and telecom people. There were no hyperbolic articles preceding the release of the Hayes modem. Actually, I'm drawing a blank on any example of popsci carny barkers doing anything but misleading and misinforming.

greenthrow• 4 years ago

There were far, far fewer clickbait headlines or articles about science in public media 40-50 years ago. We have a modern epidemic because this kind of coverage now plays an unfortunately large role in research funding. It needs to be corrected because it erodes public trust in science.

h2odragon2• 4 years ago

When GM inaugurated the "Saturn" brand, they had all sorts of PR puff describing what we'd now call a "hybrid drive train" for it. None of that happened then, but it was obviously a well realized, cherished dream, engineering done and shelved until some of the missing miracles became more economical. Why no one wants to build an electric car with a small diesel charger engine is still a mystery.

Or look at VR/AR ... Still stuck to the same visions used to scam people out of investment money since the 90s. because more practical ideas can't compete with the hype and scam established industry there.

Why do our smartphones all look like "slates" described in scifi back tot he 60s? because thats what the scifi stories told us we were going to have. Blackberry keyboards were awesome but we can't have a decent keyboard now because its un-stylish?

oblivion_noir_• 4 years ago

There's always a leading edge to technology that remains highly exclusive for a long time. Even if it's far away from being used for much it's exciting to see what the future holds. Things are being implemented now that were only a glimmer on the horizon 30 years ago

Aardwolf• 4 years ago

Can lasers really be controlled that fast, 1 petahertz means one femtosecond, do lasers not have some sort of warmup time, even if just for a few photons?

Light-field control of real and virtual charge carriers

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