Lasers will transmit information through the air

Fiber optic cables efficiently transmit data in the form of light pulses. However, they have certain disadvantages: first, they must be laid, and secondly, the amount of information transmitted is limited by their physical parameters.

An alternative is a new technology developed by scientists at the University of Maryland. Specialists were able to increase the intensity of the laser beam directed through an air tunnel created using focused light pulses.

In a conventional optical cable, light is transmitted through a transparent glass core surrounded by a shell of material whose refractive index is lower than that of glass. As a result, when light tries to spread throughout the cable, the shell reflects it, maintaining a degree of focus and intensity.

The same principle applies to “air waveguides” created under the direction of Professor Howard Milchberg.

To develop such waveguides, scientists used four laser installations, placing them squared - in each corner by a laser. The beams of short light pulses emitted by them, passing through the air, heat it up, forming warm air tunnels, which have a lower refractive index. This means that passing through the heated air envelope, the laser beam will focus, as it happens in an optical cable.

Thus, the researchers managed to send a laser beam at a distance of one meter, and its intensity was one and a half times higher than without the use of an air waveguide.

The scientists hope that further development of this technology will allow the transmission of optical information directly through the air without the use of optical cables.

Source: planetologia.ru/