AFRL-Funded Scientist Maneuvers Light on Silicon Published June 28, 2007 AFOSR Public Affairs - -- Through its Small Business Technology Transfer program, AFRL funded a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and Omega Optics ( Austin, Texas). The researchers invented and developed a compact silicon modulator. In effect, they developed a way to maneuver light on silicon--for decades a material considered unfavorable for manipulating light. The modulator can make a laser beam blink by cyclically driving a small electric current into the silicon chip. By exploiting fine silicon structures, smaller than one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, this invention brings researchers one step closer to incorporating working optics on silicon chips. Dr. Ray Chen, AFRL-funded researcher and professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, is the coinventor of the compact silicon modulator. He predicts that it will change the future of optics. Future computers will relay enormous amounts of data thousands of times faster than today's computers. Present technology uses electricity to transfer the large volume of data through the silicon chip. Optics can solve the problems related to this relatively slow process, which stem primarily from excessive heating due to high power consumption. The silicon modulator will enable optics and electronics to coexist on silicon. As a result, the modulator will relay data via control of the blinking light. As the light blinks, information moves on the silicon chip. Because the electric current is minimal, excess heating is no longer a concern. Silicon modulator production is inexpensive because the process is compatible with the technology for mass-producing computer chips. Silicon modulators also require less power, which will have an enormous impact on the future of the Air Force, commercial telecommunications, and the consumer electronics industry.