New nanocrystal material a key step toward faster, more energy-efficient computing

“The extraordinary switching and storage capabilities of these nanocrystals may one day become integral to optical computing, a method of rapidly processing and storing information using light particles that travel faster than anything in the universe. Very fast,” said Artiom Skripka, an assistant professor at the school. Oregon State University College of Science. “Our findings have the potential to advance the development of artificial intelligence and information technology generally.”

Posted in Nature Photonics, The study by Skripka and collaborators at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Columbia University and the Autonomous University of Madrid involved a type of material known as avalanche nanoparticles.

Nanomaterials are tiny substances ranging in size from one billionth of a meter to one hundred billionth of a meter. The luminescence properties of avalanche nanoparticles are extremely nonlinear—the intensity of the light they emit can vary with the light intensity. A small increase and a large increase.

The researchers studied nanocrystals composed of potassium, chlorine and lead and doped with neodymium. Potassium lead chloride nanocrystals themselves do not interact with light; however, as hosts, they enable neodymium guest ions to process light signals more efficiently, making them useful in optoelectronics, laser technology and other optical applications.

“Typically, luminescent materials emit light when excited by a laser and remain dark when not excited by a laser,” Skripka said. “In contrast, we were surprised to find that our nanocrystals have a parallel life. Under certain conditions, they exhibit a peculiar behavior: at exactly the same laser excitation wavelength and power, they can be bright or dark.

This behavior is called intrinsic optical bistability.

“If the crystals are initially dark, we need higher laser power to open them and observe the emission, but once they emit, they continue to emit and we can open them at lower laser power than initially required. observe their emission at a certain laser power,” Skripka said. “It’s like riding a bike – to get it going, you have to pedal hard, but once it’s moving, you don’t have to push that hard. Their glow can suddenly turn on and off, just like if you press a button words.

The nanocrystals’ low-power switching capabilities are consistent with global efforts to reduce the growing amount of energy consumed by artificial intelligence, data centers and electronic devices. Artificial intelligence applications not only require large amounts of computing power but are often subject to limitations associated with existing hardware, a situation that this new research could also address.

“Combining photonic materials with intrinsic optical bistability could mean faster, more efficient data processors, thereby enhancing machine learning algorithms and data analysis,” Skripka said. “It could also mean the use of more efficient light-based devices in areas such as telecommunications, medical imaging, environmental sensing, and optical and quantum computer interconnects.”

Furthermore, he said, this research complements existing efforts to develop powerful general-purpose optical computers based on the behavior of light and matter at the nanometer scale and highlights the importance of basic research in driving innovation and economic growth. .

“Our findings are an exciting advance, but more research is needed to address challenges such as scalability and integration with existing technologies before our findings can be used in practical applications,” Skripka said. .

The research, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was led by Bruce Cohen and Emory Chan of Lawrence Berkeley University, P. James Schuck of Columbia University, and Daniel Jaque of the Autonomous University of Madrid. .