ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2009) — Photonics, the science of using photons to carry information, promises to continue improving a wide variety of technologies, from computing to high-speed communication.

Now an international team of researchers from the UK, Taiwan, and Spain have discovered a compact way to produce infrared light, by firing electrons through a miniscule tunnel in a stack of gold and silica layers.

The tiny, tunable light source could be the predecessor of a new component for light-based chips.

The device is outlined in Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Synopsis in the September 21, 2009 issue of Physics.

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Adapted from materials provided by American Physical Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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A novel design for a tunable source of infrared light relies on electrons fired into a tiny hole drilled through a stack of alternating gold and silica layers. (Credit: G. Adamo, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton)

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