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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Storing data at the speed of light

A memory-storage device can bank information delivered by either light or electronic signals.
A memory cell that is accessed both with electrical signals and with light.

Electrons (orange circles) and light pulses (pink) cross paths at a memory cell (small red bar). Both types of signal can encode information on the cell. Credit: Nikolaos Farmakidis

Physicists have found a way to squeeze light signals through the confines of a silicon chip to read and write data. This could make it possible to develop devices that can link the electrical signals used in conventional computers with much faster light-based systems under development.

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Nature 576, 185 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03740-9

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