A new, breakthrough method of boosting light wave intensity on a silicon microchip could someday lay the foundation for the development of more powerful signal processing technologies.

Developed by scientists from Yale University, the advanced waveguide system relies on the power of sound to accomplish the incredible feat.

Basically, it harnesses the ability to precisely control the interaction of sound and light waves.

'Amphibious Driving'

Silicon is practically the base material for all microchip technologies, and the new system provides an advantage for scientists.

Peter Rakich, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of applied physics, says the ability to combine both sound and light in silicon allows experts to control and process information in ways they did not think were possible.

Combining sound waves and light waves is like allowing a UPS driver to use an amphibious vehicle, says Rakich.

"You can find a much more efficient route for delivery when traveling by land or water," he says.

These advantages have pushed groups all over the world to explore hybrid technologies on a silicon chip.

However, those hybrid devices have not been efficient enough for practical applications, and so progress was stifled.

Lifting The Roadblock

Now, Yale scientists solved this problem using new device designs that prevent sound and light from escaping the circuits.

Eric Kittlaus, the first author of the study and Rakich's graduate student, says figuring out how to shape the interaction of light and sound without losing amplification was the real challenge.

But with precise control over the interaction, he says they will be able to produce devices with immediate practical application, such as new types of lasers.

The waveguide system makes use of the Brillouin amplification, in which laser light is pushed into one side of the waveguide in the opposite direction of the light signal. This process produces acoustic phonons or sound waves.

The generated sound waves then scatter the laser light, allowing the light signal to stimulate the emission of so many more photons that an avalanche of photons is created.

This is maintained by the sound signals that drive the frequency information forward to the end of the waveguide. It is then emitted as a greatly amplified light signal.

Why The New Method Is Important

Kittlaus and Rakich's new method can be commercially applied in several different areas such as fiber-optic communications and signal processing.

Furthermore, the new waveguide system is part of a bigger body of research that Rakich and his lab have conducted over the last five years, which focused on designing novel microchip technologies for light.

Details of the new study are published in the journal Nature Photonics.