Ultrafast optical switching and data encoding on synthesized light fields

作者：Dandan Hui, Husain Alqattan, Simin Zhang, Vladimir Pervak, Enam Chowdhury, Mohammed Th. Hassan · 发表于：Science Advances · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1126/sciadv.adf1015 · 被引用次数：75 · 研究领域：Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications、Terahertz technology and applications、Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies

Modern electronics are founded on switching the electrical signal by radio frequency electromagnetic fields on the nanosecond time scale, limiting the information processing to the gigahertz speed. Recently, optical switches have been demonstrated using terahertz and ultrafast laser pulses to control the electrical signal and enhance the switching speed to the picosecond and a few hundred femtoseconds time scale. Here, we exploit the reflectivity modulation of the fused silica dielectric system in a strong light field to demonstrate the optical switching (ON/OFF) with attosecond time resolution. Moreover, we present the capability of controlling the optical switching signal with complex synthesized fields of ultrashort laser pulses for data binary encoding. This work paves the way for establishing optical switches and light-based electronics with petahertz speeds, several orders of magnitude faster than the current semiconductor-based electronics, opening a new realm in information technology, optical communications, and photonic processor technologies.