Artist's Depiction of Newly Demonstrated Nano-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Switches (IMAGE)
Caption
This is an artist's depiction of newly demonstrated nano-opto-electro-mechanical switches as they could be used for future filtering of colors for sensing or communications. In communications, the amount of transmitted information per channel can be increased by carrying data not only by one color but by multiple colors. Yet, the different color channels need to be routed on demand to different end-users. The image shows how this can be achieved on the scale of 1 millionth of a meter (1 micrometer) by using the switches. White light can contain, for example, blue light for voice messages, red for video, and green for text. All of those are filtered by the switches such that red, blue and green color channels are routed to different designated end-users. By applying tiny voltages researchers can swap colors on demand, controlling which data reaches which end-user.
Credit
S. Kelley/NIST
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