<p>Gallium arsenide, a compound of the elements gallium and arsenic, is basically a semiconductor used in manufacture of devices like field-effect transistors.<br /><br />Existing communications and computer architecture are increasingly being limited by pedestrian speed of electrons moving through wires and the future of highspeed communication and computing is in optics.<br /><br />The Holy Grail of results would be "wireless interconnecting" which operates at speeds 100 to 1,000 times faster than current technology, say the scientists from the US and Germany.<br /><br />The new discovery has identified a way in which nanoscale devices based on gallium arsenide can respond to strong terahertz pulses for an extremely short period, controlling the electrical signal in a semiconductor.<br /><br />Lead scientist Prof Yun-shik Lee of Oregon State University said: "Optical communication uses the extraordinary speed of light as the signal, but right now it's still controlled and limited by electrical signalling at the end.<br /><br />"Electrons and wires are too slow, they're a bottleneck. The future is in optical switching, in which wires are replaced by emitters and detectors that can function at terahertz speeds."<br /><br />The gallium arsenide devices used in this research can do that, the scientists claimed.<br />"This could be very important. We were able to manipulate and observe the quantum system, basically create a strong response and the first building block of optical signal processing," Lee said.</p>
<p>Gallium arsenide, a compound of the elements gallium and arsenic, is basically a semiconductor used in manufacture of devices like field-effect transistors.<br /><br />Existing communications and computer architecture are increasingly being limited by pedestrian speed of electrons moving through wires and the future of highspeed communication and computing is in optics.<br /><br />The Holy Grail of results would be "wireless interconnecting" which operates at speeds 100 to 1,000 times faster than current technology, say the scientists from the US and Germany.<br /><br />The new discovery has identified a way in which nanoscale devices based on gallium arsenide can respond to strong terahertz pulses for an extremely short period, controlling the electrical signal in a semiconductor.<br /><br />Lead scientist Prof Yun-shik Lee of Oregon State University said: "Optical communication uses the extraordinary speed of light as the signal, but right now it's still controlled and limited by electrical signalling at the end.<br /><br />"Electrons and wires are too slow, they're a bottleneck. The future is in optical switching, in which wires are replaced by emitters and detectors that can function at terahertz speeds."<br /><br />The gallium arsenide devices used in this research can do that, the scientists claimed.<br />"This could be very important. We were able to manipulate and observe the quantum system, basically create a strong response and the first building block of optical signal processing," Lee said.</p>