Home > Press > Future Electronics May Depend on Lasers, Not Quartz
 |
| Vahala's new laser frequency reference (left) is a small 6 mm disk; the quartz "tuning fork" (middle) is the frequency reference commonly used today in wristwatches to set the second. The dime (right) is for scale. Credit: Jiang Li/Caltech |
Abstract:
Nearly all electronics require devices called oscillators that create precise frequencies—frequencies used to keep time in wristwatches or to transmit reliable signals to radios. For nearly 100 years, these oscillators have relied upon quartz crystals to provide a frequency reference, much like a tuning fork is used as a reference to tune a piano. However, future high-end navigation systems, radar systems, and even possibly tomorrow's consumer electronics will require references beyond the performance of quartz.
Future Electronics May Depend on Lasers, Not Quartz
Pasadena, CA | Posted on July 17th, 2014Now, researchers in the laboratory of Kerry Vahala, the Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and Technology and Applied Physics at Caltech, have developed a method to stabilize microwave signals in the range of gigahertz, or billions of cycles per second—using a pair of laser beams as the reference, in lieu of a crystal.
Quartz crystals "tune" oscillators by vibrating at relatively low frequencies—those that fall at or below the range of megahertz, or millions of cycles per second, like radio waves. However, quartz crystals are so good at tuning these low frequencies that years ago, researchers were able to apply a technique called electrical frequency division that could convert higher-frequency microwave signals into lower-frequency signals, and then stabilize these with quartz.
The new technique, which Vahala and his colleagues have dubbed electro-optical frequency division, builds off of the method of optical frequency division, developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology more than a decade ago. "Our new method reverses the architecture used in standard crystal-stabilized microwave oscillators—the 'quartz' reference is replaced by optical signals much higher in frequency than the microwave signal to be stabilized," Vahala says.
Jiang Li—a Kavli Nanoscience Institute postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and one of two lead authors on the paper, along with graduate student Xu Yi—likens the method to a gear chain on a bicycle that translates pedaling motion from a small, fast-moving gear into the motion of a much larger wheel. "Electrical frequency dividers used widely in electronics can work at frequencies no higher than 50 to 100 GHz. Our new architecture is a hybrid electro-optical 'gear chain' that stabilizes a common microwave electrical oscillator with optical references at much higher frequencies in the range of terahertz or trillions of cycles per second," Li says.
The optical reference used by the researchers is a laser that, to the naked eye, looks like a tiny disk. At only 6 mm in diameter, the device is very small, making it particularly useful in compact photonics devices—electronic-like devices powered by photons instead of electrons, says Scott Diddams, physicist and project leader at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and a coauthor on the study.
"There are always tradeoffs between the highest performance, the smallest size, and the best ease of integration. But even in this first demonstration, these optical oscillators have many advantages; they are on par with, and in some cases even better than, what is available with widespread electronic technology," Vahala says.
The new technique is described in a paper that will be published in the journal Science on July 18. Other authors on this paper include Hansuek Lee, who is a visiting associate at Caltech. The work was sponsored by the DARPA's ORCHID and PULSE programs; the Caltech Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), an NSF Physics Frontiers Center with support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; and the Caltech Kavli NanoScience Institute.
Written by Jessica Stoller-Conrad
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Brian Bell
626-395-5832
Copyright © California Institute of Technology
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Bookmark:
| Related Links |
| Related News Press |
News and information
Getting closer to porous, light-responsive materials: A new flexible material changes its porous nature when exposed to light July 27th, 2017
First Capacitive Transducer with 13nm Gap July 27th, 2017
Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy
Ultrathin device harvests electricity from human motion July 23rd, 2017
Semiliquid chains pulled out of a sea of microparticles July 20th, 2017
Chip Technology
First Capacitive Transducer with 13nm Gap July 27th, 2017
Living computers: RNA circuits transform cells into nanodevices July 27th, 2017
Discoveries
Getting closer to porous, light-responsive materials: A new flexible material changes its porous nature when exposed to light July 27th, 2017
First Capacitive Transducer with 13nm Gap July 27th, 2017
Announcements
Getting closer to porous, light-responsive materials: A new flexible material changes its porous nature when exposed to light July 27th, 2017
First Capacitive Transducer with 13nm Gap July 27th, 2017
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers
Getting closer to porous, light-responsive materials: A new flexible material changes its porous nature when exposed to light July 27th, 2017
First Capacitive Transducer with 13nm Gap July 27th, 2017
Military
Nanoparticles could spur better LEDs, invisibility cloaks July 19th, 2017
'Upconverted' light has a bright future: Rice University professor developing plasmon-powered devices for medicine, security, solar cells July 17th, 2017
Nature-inspired material uses liquid reinforcement: Rice U. nanoengineers create liquid-solid composites using clues from nature July 11th, 2017
Meniscus-assisted technique produces high efficiency perovskite PV films July 7th, 2017
Photonics/Optics/Lasers
Getting closer to porous, light-responsive materials: A new flexible material changes its porous nature when exposed to light July 27th, 2017
Scientists announce the quest for high-index materials: All-dielectric nanophotonics: The quest for better materials and fabrication techniques July 22nd, 2017
Nanoparticles could spur better LEDs, invisibility cloaks July 19th, 2017
'Upconverted' light has a bright future: Rice University professor developing plasmon-powered devices for medicine, security, solar cells July 17th, 2017
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
University Technology Transfer & Patents
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||