The Goal, The Reason, The Vision
Soooooo.... what is even going on? There is all this about optics, lasers, 'micro disk resonators and quality factors.
What this all boils down to, what the long term results of this research, and related research, are high powered light sources, and replacing electricity with light for processing, and modern computing.
That being said, there are still many, many years to go until there is such a result, and even then, micro disk optical resonators will be but a part of that.
The goal of Post-Doctorate Young-Seci Choi's work, is to make the highest quality micro disk resonators possible.
Now you are asking two other questions,
A.) How does a micro disk resonator work?
B.) How would you measure the quality of a micro disk resonator?
C.) What can this do, what exactly is it's applications (talk about temp storage for optical bits)(led need resonators)(lasers too)
I will address A.) here, and B.) is addressed in 'The Process' section.
Ok so what is going on with these micro disk resonators?
A simple analogy of the resonators is that they are like hamster wheels for light, once going in, light is trapped, and will endlessly go in circles.
Round and round it will bounce,
Were it stops,
And where is goes
Is calculated, modeled, and known
That being said, only certain wavelengths of light will 'run' inside, others will 'trip' and die out.
This property is a result of the wave nature of light. Utilized in Constructive and Destructive interference, some wavelengths add onto their selves, thus self amplification. others cancel themselves out.
Constructive interference:
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
+
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
========
.../\../\../\../\../
/..\/..\/..\/..\/
Destructive interference
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
+
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
========
_________
Now why do we care? What could these be used for?
currently microprocessors have hit a proverbial 'wall' in advancement. because electricity going through a transistors it generates heats, and because processors are densely packed transistors, then they generate absence amounts of heat, in it's square cm size, a P4 generates the same amount of heat as 8 irons (ya... those things that most guys don't know how to use, clothes irons)
To continue Moore's law's model of processor speed doubling, it will be necessary in the future to instead of electrically processes signals, to optically processes them. Optical processes, Optical microchips.
Such a product would require both wave guides, and manipulators. The former being a relative of an optical fiber, the latter possible being microdisks resonators.
Microdisks have a future, a far out one, but an important one, we are studying them for the goal of advancing science as a whole, to help humanity!!
