A new breakthrough in optical computing could help make computers dramatically faster.
A team of scientists from Skoltech in Russia and the University of Wuppertal in Germany has shown that a special type of all-optical logic gate—previously developed at Skoltech—can operate at speeds up to 240 gigahertz (GHz) while functioning at room temperature.
That’s hundreds of times faster than what conventional electronic devices can typically manage.
Their findings were published in the journal Physical Review B and are a major step toward developing optical computers, which use light instead of electricity to process information.
This technology has the potential to replace traditional electronics in future super-fast computing systems.
At the center of this research is a device called a universal NOR logic gate, a basic building block of digital circuits.
Unlike conventional gates that rely on the movement of electrons, this one is powered entirely by light.
It uses a phenomenon called polariton condensation, which occurs when light and matter combine to form hybrid particles called polaritons. These polaritons can rapidly change states and perform logic operations without producing the heat that slows down traditional electronics.
The team, led by Skoltech’s Laboratory of Hybrid Photonics, wanted to know just how fast their optical gate could run.
They discovered it could process signals at 240 billion cycles per second—far faster than the processors in today’s computers. This is made possible by the ability of polaritons to switch quickly between logic states, representing binary “1” and “0.”
However, there’s a challenge. When polaritons from a previous logic pulse linger too long, they can interfere with the next pulse, leading to inaccurate results.
The researchers investigated this issue by studying an effect known as bimolecular quenching, where interactions between polaritons lead to signal loss. This effect sets a natural speed limit on how fast the system can operate without errors.
Mikhail Misko, the study’s lead author and a Ph.D. student at Skoltech, explained that understanding these losses helps in designing even faster and more reliable optical systems. The team developed a model that accounts for how polaritons spread out and lose energy, helping to better predict and control performance.
The research also emphasized the importance of precisely timing the pulses of light that power the logic gates. If the light pulses are too long, the system slows down. But with shorter, carefully timed pulses, the logic gate works more efficiently.
This discovery brings scientists closer to building fully functional optical computers—machines that could one day revolutionize everything from artificial intelligence to large-scale data processing by delivering blazing-fast speed without the heat and limitations of traditional electronics.
