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IMAGE: Newly developed ballistic optical materials consist of a composite of two transparent materials, creating a plasmonic material.
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Credit: Evan Simmons and Kun Li
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Electronics are increasingly being paired with optical systems, such as when accessing the internet on an electronically run computer through fiber optic cables.
But meshing optics -- which relies on particles of light called photons--with electronics--relying on electrons -- is challenging, due to their disparate scales. Electrons work at a much smaller scale than light does. The mismatch between electronic systems and optical systems means that every time a signal converts from one to the other, inefficiency creeps into the system.