Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
What will optical communications be capable of in the next decade? Transmission of 10 Tbit s−1 over a single fibre and a reconfigurable transparent network are two possibilities.
A new Internet is emerging. One in which dedicated optical circuits allow researchers to connect to computers all over the world and interactively work with massive datasets in real time. The technology is opening up new avenues in science, and this is just the beginning.
Despite two decades of work geared towards improving the nonlinear optical properties of organic molecules, practical organic light modulators have not yet reached the market in large numbers. New organic-inorganic hybrid approaches may revolutionize the field.
A Cambridge start-up company is opening a large manufacturing facility for organic electronic circuits. The news is expected to accelerate the deployment of electronic-paper displays.
The advent of bandwidth-hungry multimedia services such as video on demand and Internet-protocol-based TV is driving operators to deploy high-speed fibre-to-the-home connections.
As data rates continue to spiral upwards, electrical interconnects based on copper traces and wires are struggling to keep up and optical solutions are looking increasingly attractive.
Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, which provides a high-speed optical-data link directly into the house or apartment, is now becoming very popular in Japan and Korea. Adarsh Sandhu spoke to the FTTH Council Asia Pacific about the status of the technology in the region.
Unwanted reflections can severely limit the performance of optical components. David Gevaux spoke to Fred Schubert from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute about how his nanomaterials with a refractive index almost equal to that of air can help.
Using quantum optics to process data could herald a new era of information technology. With the latest semiconductor source of photons, researchers are paving the way towards this enticing goal.
Lasers are a triumph of modern optics, and mirrors play a crucial role in the coherent light produced. A hi-tech reflector could make lasers a lot smaller and lead to their inclusion in an even wider range of optical devices.
