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Nanowire may change computers

A new nanowire that may revolutionize the current computer with optical architecture has been successfully synthesized, with the initial steps for mass production already in development, the National Science Council (NSC) said yesterday, adding that computers that are many times faster than present models may be on the horizon.

The nanowire, described as a “peapod” wire, was developed by Chou Li-jen (周立人) and his doctorate student Hsieh Chin-hua (謝進華) as well as a team of doctorate and masters students at the National Tsing Hua University’s department of materials science and engineering, under the sponsorship of the NSC.

“Chou’s nanowire has been described as a material with high potential as a building block for the next generation optical computers by an array of international experts,” NSC Deputy Minister Chen Lih-Juann (陳力俊) said.

Chen said that the paper had been selected by the highly respected academic journal Nano Letters as a cover story, “[It] marked the first time that a Taiwanese project had received such a level of recognition in the field,” he added.

Instead of the current computer chips, which rely on electron transmission to send signals of 0 or 1, Chou said his team has proposed a new approach with optical technology since nanowires transmit data at least 10 times faster than electrons.

Chou’s team synthesized a nanowire composed of evenly distanced crystalline gold nanoparticles embedded in a “pea shell” of insulating gallium oxide nano tube-wires, which can transmit a 0 or 1 signal not through electrons but light, said Hsieh, the paper’s lead author.

“The mechanism for the transmission relies on the special property of the gold-gallium-oxide nanowire, which is extremely sensitive to lights of 532 nanometers [nm] in frequency,” Hsieh said.

When exposed to such light, the gold nanoparticles experience localized surface plasmon resonance, which leads them to produce photocurrents, Hsieh said.

“In simple words, this means that the 532nm light induces the peapod nanowire to transfer light into an optical electric current, and sends a ‘1’ signal,” he said.

Because gallium-oxide is a highly insulating material, when it is not exposed to light at 532nm frequency, it sends a ‘0’ signal,” he added.

Despite the significance of the breakthrough, the success of this development only means that the hardest part of optical computer development is about to begin, Hsieh said.

“What we have done is develop the building material for the optical computer. Though other elements such as nanodots and nano switches have also been developed, they now all need to be integrated so that together they can form working devices, which will require the work of interdisciplinary scientists,” he said.

However, Hsieh added that the outlook for the optical computer was very promising.

“Just like 30 years ago when the current chip was first developed, one can only guess how many advancements these new materials will bring us,” he said.
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