Lightwave Logic Inc (LWLG)

[oddone33320]

OT: Black phosphorus is new 'wonder material' for improving optical communication

http://phys.org/news/2015-03-black-phosphorus-material-optical.html

".....While graphene has proven useful for a wide variety of applications, its main limitation is its lack of a band gap. This means that graphene always conducts a significant amount of electricity, and this "leakage" makes graphene devices inefficient. In essence, the device is "on" and leaking electricity all the time.

Black phosphorus, on the other hand, has a widely-tunable band gap that varies depending on how many layers are stacked together. This means that black phosphorus can be tuned to absorb light in the visible range but also in the infrared. This large degree of tunability makes black phosphorus a unique material that can be used for a wide range of applications—from chemical sensing to optical communication.

Additionally, black phosphorus is a so-called "direct-band" semiconductor, meaning it has the potential to efficiently convert electrical signals back into light. Combined with its high performance photodetection abilities, black phosphorus could also be used to generate light in an optical circuit, making it a one-stop solution for on-chip optical communication.

"It is really exciting to think of a single material that can be used to send and receive data optically and is not limited to a specific substrate or wavelength," Youngblood said. "This could have huge potential for high-speed communication between CPU cores which is a bottleneck in computing industry right now....."

Tick tock....