On September 18, Professor Yong-Hoon Cho from the KAIST Department of Physics and his team of researchers announced that they developed a highly efficient nonlinear photonics diode with superior asymmetric light propagation. According to the research, the photonic diode could be the best alternative to the current silicon-based electronic diode, as its faster data transfer and processing, with little loss, may be crucial to future technologies. The team is confident that this new diode will enable rapid optical signal processing and communication.
The research reported the behavior of highly asymmetric photonic diodes with low scattering loss, from tapered core–shell quantum well semiconductor rods. The rods were generated so that they had a large gradient in their bandgap energy along their growth direction. A huge contrast in light output intensities from opposite ends of the rod resulted from the local laser illumination of the rods.
Professor Cho said, "A large energy difference in the horizontal direction causes asymmetrical light propagation, enabling it to be used as a photonic diode." He added, “If light, instead of electrons, were adopted into integrated circuits, the transfer speed would be expected to become as great as the speed of light.”
Professor Cho received his bachelor’s degree in physics at Sogang University and his master’s and Ph.D. at Seoul National University. Professor Cho’s Quantum and Nanobio Photonics Laboratory at KAIST is devoted to the control of light-matter interaction in semiconductor nanophotonic materials and structures. He has made over 200 refereed international publications and over 266 international conferences presentations in the field of semiconductor physics, optoelectronics, optics, and material science
The research findings were published on the cover of the ninth issue of Nano Letters, renowned reports on fundamental research in all fields of the theory and practice of nanoscience and nanotechnology including their extensive subdisciplines.