A Fiber Frozen at -196°C Unlocks a New Way To Store Light
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light have achieved a significant breakthrough in optical fiber technology. By cooling liquid core optical fibers to -196°C in liquid nitrogen, the team successfully transformed the core into a solid state. This process maintains the fiber's ability to guide light while allowing it to conduct hypersonic sound waves with high efficiency.
The resulting fiber environment increases the interaction between light and sound, known as Brillouin-Mandelstam scattering, by over 1000 times compared to standard fibers. This significant boost in optoacoustic coupling provides a practical method for storing information. Because light moves faster than sound, data can be transferred from a light wave into a sound wave for temporary storage before being converted back.
This development holds potential for the future of photonic neuromorphic computing. By storing information in this way, systems may operate with much lower energy requirements than current designs. The research team notes that this platform offers extreme nonlinear effects while remaining manageable for laboratory use.
Beyond computing, this light-sound coupling is expected to influence quantum information processing, microwave photonics, and high-precision sensing. The work originated from a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute, Leibniz University Hannover, and the Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technologies. The findings were recently published in the journal Optica.