Light was used to calculate the inside of a hair-thick fibre

Scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, have developed a new way of programming optical circuits that could be used to create future technologies such as unbreakable communication networks and ultrafast quantum computers. The research has been published in the journal Nature Physics and is summarised in a press release on Phys.org.

In the new work, the physicists used commercially available optical fibres less than the thickness of a human hair and found that they could very precisely program the optical circuits within them. To do this, they studied the complex process of photon scattering inside the fibre to perform subsequent calculations.