Scientists broke the data transfer speed record!
Staggering numbers
Scientists have again managed to break the data transfer speed record , using lasers. Specifically, they were able to record the fastest information transmission ever, transferring 1.8 petabits per second between a laser and a single optical chip system.
According to the statistics website Internet Live Stats, this is a larger volume of data than goes through the entire internet every second ! Yes, it is a number that is really hard to keep in mind. Imagine that to reach one gigabit, you need 1,000 megabits, a speed that exceeds more than 20 times the average internet speed in Greece. Then, to reach 1 petabit one needs… 1 million gigabits!
As for the complex system that the scientists prepared to break the impressive record, it is based on a specially designed optical chip, which uses the light from a single infrared laser and splits it into hundreds of frequencies. The frequencies are then isolated at fixed distances from each other, like the teeth of a comb. In fact, the scientists were inspired by this and decided to name the whole system ‘frequency comb’, i.e. ‘frequency comb’.
Each ‘tooth’ in this frequency comb can send its own packet of data and this is how these enormous transmission rates are achieved. By more conventional means, it would take about a thousand lasers to transfer the same amount of data.
Speaking about it, nanoscientist Victor Torres-Company from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, pointed out:
What is special about this chip is that it produces a ‘frequency comb’ with ideal characteristics for fiber optic communications. It has high optical power and covers a wide bandwidth in the spectral region, which is useful for advanced optical communications.
The most impressive; The researchers report that there is significant scope for further scaling the system, meaning that even higher data rates may be achievable in the future!
The research was published in the scientific journal Nature Photonics on October 20, 2022, with the official title ‘Petabit-per-second data transmission using a chip-scale microcomb ring resonator source’.
