̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - telecommunication

Researchers demonstrate the UK’s first long-distance ultra-secure communication over a quantum network

sc604 — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 23:38:58 +0000

̽��ֱ��team, from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge, created the network, which uses standard fibreoptic infrastructure, but relies on a variety of quantum phenomena to enable ultra-secure data transfer.

̽��ֱ��network uses two types of quantum key distribution (QKD) schemes: ‘unhackable’ encryption keys hidden inside particles of light; and distributed entanglement: a phenomenon that causes quantum particles to be intrinsically linked.

̽��ֱ��researchers demonstrated the capabilities of the network via a live, quantum-secure video conference link, the transfer of encrypted medical data, and secure remote access to a distributed data centre. ̽��ֱ��data was successfully transmitted between Bristol and Cambridge – a fibre distance of over 410 kilometres.

This is the first time that a long-distance network, encompassing different quantum-secure technologies such as entanglement distribution, has been successfully demonstrated. ̽��ֱ��researchers presented their results at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC) in San Francisco.

Quantum communications offer unparalleled security advantages compared to classical telecommunications solutions. These technologies are immune against future cyber-attacks, even with quantum computers, which – once fully developed – will have the potential to break through even the strongest cryptographic methods currently in use.

In the past few years, researchers have been working to build and use quantum communication networks. China recently set up a massive network that covers 4,600 kilometres by connecting five cities using both fibreoptics and satellites. In Madrid, researchers created a smaller network with nine connection points that use different types of QKD to securely share information.

In 2019, researchers at Cambridge and Toshiba demonstrated a metro-scale quantum network operating at record key rates of millions of key bits per second. And in 2020, researchers in Bristol built a network that could share entanglement between multiple users. Similar quantum network trials have been demonstrated in Singapore, Italy and the USA.

Despite this progress, no one has built a large, long-distance network that can handle both types of QKD, entanglement distribution, and regular data transmission all at once, until now.

̽��ֱ��experiment demonstrates the potential of quantum networks to accommodate different quantum-secure approaches simultaneously with classical communications infrastructure. It was carried out using the UK’s Quantum Network (UKQN), established over the last decade by the same team, supported by funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and as part of the Quantum Communications Hub project.

“This is a crucial step toward building a quantum-secured future for our communities and society,” said co-author Dr Rui Wang, Lecturer for Future Optical Networks in the Smart Internet Lab's High Performance Network Research Group at the ̽��ֱ�� of Bristol. “More importantly, it lays the foundation for a large-scale quantum internet—connecting quantum nodes and devices through entanglement and teleportation on a global scale.”

“This marks the culmination of more than ten years of work to design and build the UK Quantum Network,” said co-author Adrian Wonfor from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Not only does it demonstrate the use of multiple quantum communications technologies, but also the secure key management systems required to allow seamless end-to-end encryption between us.”

“This is a significant step in delivering quantum security for the communications we all rely upon in our daily lives at a national scale,” said co-author Professor Richard Penty, also from Cambridge and who headed the Quantum Networks work package in the Quantum Communications Hub. “It would not have been possible without the close collaboration of the two teams at Cambridge and Bristol, the support of our industrial partners Toshiba, BT, Adtran and Cisco, and our funders at UKRI.”

“This is an extraordinary achievement which highlights the UK’s world-class strengths in quantum networking technology,” said Gerald Buller, Director of the IQN Hub, based at Heriot-Watt ̽��ֱ��. “This exciting demonstration is precisely the kind of work the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub will support over the coming years, developing the technologies, protocols and standards which will establish a resilient, future-proof, national quantum communications infrastructure.”

̽��ֱ��current UKQN covers two metropolitan quantum networks around Bristol and Cambridge, which are connected via a ‘backbone’ of four long-distance optical fibre links spanning 410 kilometres with three intermediate nodes.

̽��ֱ��network uses single-mode fibre over the EPSRC National Dark Fibre Facility (which provides dedicated fibre for research purposes), and low-loss optical switches allowing network reconfiguration of both classical and quantum signal traffic.

̽��ֱ��team will pursue this work further through a newly funded EPSRC project, the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub, whose vision is to establish quantum networks at all distance scales, from local networking of quantum processors to national-scale entanglement networks for quantum-safe communication, distributed computing and sensing, all the way to intercontinental networking via low-earth orbit satellites.

Reference:
R. Yang et al. ‘A UK Nationwide Heterogeneous Quantum Network.’ Paper presented at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC): https://www.ofcconference.org/en-us/home/schedule/

Researchers have successfully demonstrated the UK’s first long-distance ultra-secure transfer of data over a quantum communications network, including the UK’s first long-distance quantum-secured video call.

MR.Cole_Photographer via Getty Images

Abstract background

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Flip the switch: the tech in 35 million phones

sc604 — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0000

How tiny vibrations in minute metal structures – and a little bit of luck – helped make mobile phones faster and more efficient.

Existing infrastructure will be unable to support demand for high-speed internet

sc604 — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and BT, have established the maximum speed at which data can be transmitted through existing copper cables. This limit would allow for faster internet compared to the speeds currently achievable using standard infrastructure, however it will not be able to support high-speed internet in the longer term.

̽��ֱ��team found that the ‘twisted pair’ copper cables that reach every house and business in the UK are physically limited in their ability to support higher frequencies, which in turn support higher data rates.

While full-fibre internet is currently available to around one in four households, it is expected to take at least two decades before it reaches every home in the UK. In the meantime, however, existing infrastructure can be improved to temporarily support high-speed internet.

̽��ֱ��results, reported in the journal Nature Communications, both establish a physical limit on the UK’s ubiquitous copper cables, and emphasise the importance of immediate investment in future technologies.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge-led team used a combination of computer modelling and experiments to determine whether it was possible to get higher speeds out of existing copper infrastructure and found that it can carry a maximum frequency of about 5 GHz, above the currently used spectrum, which is lower than 1 GHz. Above 5 GHz however, the copper cables start to behave like antennas.

Using this extra bandwidth can push data rates on the copper cables above several Gigabits per second on short ranges, while fibre cables can carry hundreds of Terabits per second or more.

“Any investment in existing copper infrastructure would only be an interim solution,” said co-author Dr Anas Al Rawi from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “Our findings show that eventual migration to optical fibre is inevitable.”

̽��ֱ��twisted pair– where two conductors are twisted together to improve immunity against noise and to reduce electromagnetic radiation and interference – was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1881. Twisted pair cables replaced grounded lines by the end of the 19th century and have been highly reliable ever since. Today, twisted pair cables are standardised to carry 424 MHz bandwidth over shorter cable lengths owing to deeper fibre penetration and advancement in digital signal processing.

These cables are now reaching the end of their life as they cannot compete with the speed of fibre-optic cables, but it’s not possible to get rid of all the copper cables due to fibre’s high cost. ̽��ֱ��fibre network is continuously getting closer to users, but the connection between the fibre network and houses will continue to rely on the existing copper infrastructure. Therefore, it is vital to invest in technologies that can support the fibre networks on the last mile to make the best use of them.

“High-speed internet is a necessity of 21st century life,” said first author Dr Ergin Dinc, who carried out the research while he was based at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. “Internet service providers have been switching existing copper wires to high-speed fibre-optic cables, but it will take between 15 and 20 years for these to reach every house in the UK and will cost billions of pounds. While this change is happening, we’ve shown that existing copper infrastructure can support higher speeds as an intermediate solution.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge researchers, working with industry collaborators, have been investigating whether it’s possible to squeeze faster internet speeds out of existing infrastructure as a potential stopgap measure, particularly for rural and remote areas.

“No one had really looked into the physical limitations driving the maximum internet speed for twisted pair cables before,” said Dinc. “If we used these cables in a different way, would it be possible to get them to carry data at higher speeds?”

Using a mix of theoretical modelling and experimentation, the researchers found that twisted pair cables are limited in the frequency they can carry, a limit that’s defined by the geometry of the cable. Above this limit, around 5 GHz, the twisted pair cables start to radiate and behave like an antenna.

“ ̽��ֱ��way that the cables are twisted together defines how high a frequency they can carry,” said Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, also from the Cavendish, who led the research. “To enable higher data rates, we’d need the cables to carry a higher frequency, but this can’t happen indefinitely because of physical limitations. We can improve speeds a little bit, but not nearly enough to be future-proof.”

̽��ֱ��researchers say their results underline just how important it is that government and industry work together to build the UK’s future digital infrastructure, since existing infrastructure can handle higher data rates in the near future, while the move to a future-proof full-fibre network continues.

̽��ֱ��work is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Cavendish, the Department of Engineering, BT and Huawei in a project led by Professor Mike Payne, also of the Cavendish Laboratory. ̽��ֱ��research was also supported by the Royal Society, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Reference:
Ergin Dinc et al. ‘High-Frequency Electromagnetic Waves on Unshielded Twisted Pairs: Upper Bound on Carrier Frequency.’ Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29631-8

Researchers have shown that the UK’s existing copper network cables can support faster internet speeds, but only to a limit. They say additional investment is urgently needed if the government is serious about its commitment to making high-speed internet available to all.

We can improve speeds a little bit, but not nearly enough to be future-proof

Eloy de Lera Acedo

Miroslaw Nozka/EyeEm via Getty Images

Copper wires

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Graphene may exceed bandwidth demands of future telecommunications

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 12:34:23 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers have demonstrated how properties of graphene – a two-dimensional form of carbon - enable ultra-wide bandwidth communications and low power consumption to radically change the way data is transmitted across the optical communications systems.

This could make graphene-integrated devices the key ingredient in the evolution of 5G, the Internet-of-Things (IoT), and Industry 4.0. ̽��ֱ��findings are published in Nature Reviews Materials.

As conventional semiconductor technologies approach their physical limitations, researchers need to explore new technologies to realise the most ambitious visions of a future networked global society. Graphene promises a significant step forward in performance for the key components of telecommunications and data communications.

In their new paper, the researchers have presented a vision for the future of graphene-based integrated photonics, and provided strategies for improving power consumption, manufacturability and wafer-scale integration. With this new publication, the Graphene Flagship partners also provide a roadmap for graphene-based photonics devices surpassing the technological requirement for the evolution of datacom and telecom markets driven by 5G, IoT, and the Industry 4.0.

“Graphene integrated in a photonic circuit is a low cost, scalable technology that can operate fibre links at a very high data rates,” said study lead author Marco Romagnoli from CNIT, the National Interuniversity Consortium for Telecommunications in Italy.

Graphene photonics offers advantages both in performance and manufacturing over the state of the art. Graphene can ensure modulation, detection and switching performances meeting all the requirements for the next evolution in photonic device manufacturing.

Co-author Antonio D’Errico, from Ericsson Research, says that “graphene for photonics has the potential to change the perspective of Information and Communications Technology in a disruptive way. Our publication explains why, and how to enable new feature rich optical networks.”

This industrial and academic partnership, comprising researchers in the Cambridge Graphene Centre, CNIT, Ericsson, Nokia, IMEC, AMO, and ICFO produced the vision for the future of graphene photonic integration.

“Collaboration between industry and academia is key for explorative work towards entirely new component technology,” said co-author Wolfgang Templ of Nokia Bell Labs. “Research in this phase bears significant risks, so it is important that academic research and industry research labs join the brightest minds to solve the fundamental problems. Industry can give perspective on the relevant research questions for potential in future systems. Thanks to a mutual exchange of information we can then mature the technology and consider all the requirements for a future industrialization and mass production of graphene-based components.”

“An integrated approach of graphene and silicon-based photonics can meet and surpass the foreseeable requirements of the ever-increasing data rates in future telecom systems,” said Professor Andrea Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre. “ ̽��ֱ��advent of the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and the 5G era represent unique opportunities for graphene to demonstrate its ultimate potential.”

Reference:
Marco Romagnoli et al. ‘Graphene-based integrated photonics for next-generation datacom and telecom.’ Nature Reviews Materials (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41578-018-0040-9.

Researchers from the Cambridge Graphene Centre, together with industrial and academic collaborators within the European Graphene Flagship project, showed that integrated graphene-based photonic devices offer a solution for the next generation of optical communications.

Lauren V. Robinson / © Springer Nature Ltd

Yes

Graphene paves the way to faster high-speed communications

Anonymous — Thu, 31 May 2018 16:45:00 +0000

Graphene, among other materials, can capture particles of light called photons, combine them, and produce a more powerful optical beam. This is due to a physical phenomenon called optical harmonic generation, which is characteristic of nonlinear materials. Nonlinear optical effects can be exploited in a variety of applications, including laser technology, material processing and telecommunications.

Although all materials should demonstrate this behaviour, the efficiency of this process is typically small and cannot be controlled externally. Now, researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Politecnico di Milano and IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia have demonstrated that graphene not only shows a good optical response but also how to control the strength of this effect using an electric field. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. All three institutions are partners in the Graphene Flagship, a pan-European project dedicated to bringing graphene and related materials for commercial applications.

What is graphene?

Graphene – a form of carbon just a single atom thick – has a unique combination of properties that make it useful for applications from flexible electronics and fast data communication, to enhanced structural materials and water treatments. It is highly electrically and thermally conductive, as well as strong and flexible.

How could graphene be useful?

Researchers envision the creation of new graphene optical switches, which could also harness new optical frequencies to transmit data along optical cables, increasing the amount of data that can be transmitted. Currently, most commercial devices using nonlinear optics are only used in spectroscopy. Graphene could pave the way towards the fabrication of new devices for ultra-broad bandwidth applications.

“Our work shows that the third harmonic generation efficiency in graphene can be increased by over 10 times by tuning an applied electric field,” said lead author Giancarlo Soavi, of the Cambridge Graphene Centre.

“ ̽��ֱ��authors found again something unique about graphene: tuneability of third harmonic generation over a broad wavelength range," said Professor Frank Koppens from the ICFO ( ̽��ֱ��Institute of Photonic Sciences)in Barcelona and leader of one of the Graphene Flagship work packages. "As more and more applications are all-optical, this work paves the way to a multitude of technologies.”

Professor Andrea C. Ferrari, Science and Technology Officer of the Graphene Flagship, and Chair of its Management Panel, said: “Graphene never ceases to surprise us when it comes to optics and photonics. ̽��ֱ��Graphene Flagship has put significant investment to study and exploit the optical properties of graphene. This collaborative work could lead to optical devices working on a range of frequencies broader than ever before, thus enabling a larger volume of information to be processed or transmitted.”

Reference:
Giancarlo Soavi et al. 'Broadband, electrically tuneable, third harmonic generation in graphene.' Nature Nanotechnology (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-018-0145-8

Adapted from a Cambridge Graphene Centre press release.

Researchers have created a technology that could lead to new devices for faster, more reliable ultra-broad bandwidth transfers, and demonstrated how electrical fields boost the non-linear optical effects of graphene.

Graphene never ceases to surprise us when it comes to optics and photonics.

Andrea Ferrari

AlexanderAlUS

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BT and Huawei announce five year collaboration with Cambridge

ps748 — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:57:44 +0000

This new team, intended to combine the brightest minds from two of the biggest global information, communication and telecommunications (“ICT”) companies with one of the foremost academic institutions in the world, will further strengthen the UK’s status as one of the world’s leading hubs for innovation. Backed by up to £25 million in funding and contributions over the next five years, the research group is expected to focus on projects relating to photonics, digital and access network infrastructure and media technologies, alongside work aimed at enhancing the societal impact of communications technologies.

̽��ֱ��research project aims to bring together experts from the BT Labs, the Huawei R&D Team and academics from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to explore new technologies which have the potential to unlock economic benefits for UK businesses and organisations, such as reducing the cost of network infrastructure and boosting operational performance. ̽��ֱ��projects are also expected to focus on the critical role that new technologies can play in delivering positive impacts for society, such as those aimed at reducing inequality, particularly for those groups excluded from digital transformation and using ICT technologies to improve resilience of communities to climate change.

Finally, the funding is also intended to be used to support longer-term, ‘blue skies’ research projects being progressed by postgraduate students at the ̽��ֱ�� which are focused on generating benefits for industry and society at large. All these projects will be assessed by an Academic Advisory Board intended to be made up of senior representatives from each of the parties. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� maintains strong links with the hi-tech business cluster of more than 4,700 companies which has sprung up around the Cambridge area. ̽��ֱ��new research and collaboration team – expected to be based at the ̽��ֱ��’s Maxwell Centre – will further harness the combined strengths of industry and the very best in academia to strengthen the area’s position as one of the leading technology hubs in Europe.

From left to right: BT CEO, Gavin Patterson, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Prof Stephen Toope and Huawei CEO, Ken Hu

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding today, the new group is expected to kick off research activity in the first half of 2018 with five to ten researchers from BT and Huawei working alongside their ̽��ֱ�� collaborators.

Prof Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is delighted to be, once again, demonstrating the importance of its research to business and industry. ̽��ֱ��world of telecommunications has advanced rapidly over the last two decades. However, there is still work to be done to improve the technologies we use on a daily basis and to ensure that they are long-lived. By working with BT and Huawei we will be able to demonstrate that the insights delivered through our research have a broad impact.”

Gavin Patterson, BT Group Chief Executive said: “BT’s fixed and mobile infrastructure is the engine of the UK economy, so it is essential that we continue to innovate in this space to enhance the UK’s competitiveness on the world stage towards and through Brexit.

“BT currently invests around £500m every year in R&D, and over the last ten years we’ve been the third biggest contributor to the UK’s R&D efforts.

“We believe the best way of ensuring this country remains at the forefront of innovation is by combining the expertise and commercial focus of industry with the fantastic intellectual capital found at our world-leading universities. Working together with Huawei and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, we will discover the next generation of technologies which promise to deliver huge economic, social and cultural benefits for UK citizens.”

Ken Hu Deputy Chairman and Rotating CEO, Huawei, said: “Technology is changing the world faster than we have ever seen. It will bring many benefits to mankind, and affect nearly every aspect of our lives. Huawei will continue to invest and form partnerships to build out future infrastructure. We have over 80,000 people in research and development globally, working with customers, universities and industry bodies.

“No single organization has all the answers. Partnership is the only way forward in a complex digital age. We look forward to working with BT and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Together, we will explore future technologies and help ensure a positive social impact.”

Both BT and Huawei have a long history of working with Cambridge on research projects. Researchers at the BT Labs in Adastral Park recently collaborated with the ̽��ֱ��’s Cavendish Lab on a project to assess the potential theoretical speeds that can be delivered over the UK’s access network infrastructure. Huawei and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have been working together for seven years on range of successful research projects including media, communications and other technologies.

BT and Huawei today announced a new five-year initiative which aims to see the two companies establish a joint research and collaboration group at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

By working with BT and Huawei we will be able to demonstrate that the insights delivered through our research have broad impact

Prof Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor

̽��ֱ��Maxwell Centre

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

New light shed on explosive solar activity

lw355 — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 10:00:34 +0000

̽��ֱ��study published today by ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge scientists working with colleagues in India and the USA is the first to visualise the movement of gases at one million degrees in coronal loops – solar structures that are rooted at both ends and extend out from active regions of the Sun. Active regions are the ‘cradle’ for explosive energy releases such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

̽��ֱ��observation will help scientists understand what is considered to be one of the most challenging issues in astrophysics – how solar structures are heated and maintained in the upper solar atmosphere. Extreme solar activity can lead to severe space storms that interfere with satellite communications and damage electric power transmission grids on Earth. Solar activity is cyclical, with the next maximum forecast to occur around May 2013, and severe space weather is now listed very high on the UK’s 2012 National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies.

Based on observations from the Hinode satellite (a joint Japanese, NASA, European Space Agency and UK project), the new findings provide the first evidence of plasma upflows travelling at around 20 km per second in the one million degree active region loops. ̽��ֱ��scientists suggest that the upflow of gases is probably the result of “impulsive heating” close to the footpoint regions of the loops.

“Active regions are now occurring frequently across the Sun. We have a really great opportunity to study them with solar spacecraft, such as Hinode and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO),” said co-author Dr Helen Mason from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “Probing the heating of the Sun's active region loops can help us to better understand the physical mechanisms for more energetic events which can impinge on the Earth’s environment.”

Previous ultraviolet images of the Sun taken by NASA’s SDO have shown large loops of hot gas guided by the Sun’s magnetic field and rooted near sunspots. Despite such remarkable developments in the observations and theory of active regions over the past few decades, the question remained as to how solar plasma is heated and rises up into the loops in the first place.

Now, the new research provides the first visualisation of plasma flow by showing the movement of gases within the loop as ‘blueshifts’ in diagnostic images using the extreme ultraviolet imaging spectrometer (EIS) on the Hinode satellite. Spectral lines produced by the spectrometer act like ‘fingerprints’ or the ‘bar code’ in a supermarket – the lines identify the multitude of elements and ions within the loop and shifts in the position of the lines provide information on the motion of the plasma. Although the Sun is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, there are also other trace elements, such as oxygen and iron, in the hot ionised gas within the loops.

̽��ֱ��scientists suggest that the gas movement is caused by a process of “chromospheric evaporation” in which “impulsive heating” on a small scale can result in the heating of the solar active regions but on a larger scale can lead to huge explosions, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections.

“It is believed that magnetic energy builds up in an active region as the magnetic field becomes distorted, for example by motions below the surface of the Sun dragging the magnetic fields around,” explained Mason, whose research is partially funded by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). “Sometimes magnetic flux can emerge or submerge and affect the overlying magnetic field. We believe that solar plasma surges upwards when impulsive heating results from magnetic reconnection which occurs either in the loops or close to the Sun’s surface. These disruptions are sometimes relatively gentle but can also be catastrophic.”

Commenting on the newly published study, Professor Richard Harrison MBE, Head of Space Physics and Chief Scientist at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Sun governs the environment in which we live and it is the so-called solar active regions that drive extreme conditions leading to the explosive flares and the huge eruptions; understanding these active regions is absolutely critical for the study of what we now call space weather. ̽��ֱ��work published by in this paper is a key element of that work, applying innovative analyses to the observations from the UK-led Hinode/EIS instrument.”

̽��ֱ��researchers hope that a better understanding of active regions might one day help scientists to identify the magnetic field structures that lead to explosive solar energy releases and use this as a means for predicting when such events will occur.

̽��ֱ��study is published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

̽��ֱ��first images of an upward surge of the Sun’s gases into quiescent coronal loops have been identified by an international team of scientists. ̽��ֱ��discovery is one more step towards understanding the origins of extreme space storms, which can destroy satellite communications and damage power grids on Earth.

Probing the heating of the Sun's active region loops can help us to better understand the physical mechanisms for more energetic events which can impinge on the Earth’s environment.

Dr Helen Mason

SDO/AIA (NASA)

Sun's active region loops

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Yes

Graphene goes plasmonic

bjb42 — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:00:20 +0000

̽��ֱ��findings are reported in the journal Nature Communications, and were made by a team from the Universities of Cambridge and Manchester which includes the Nobel Prize-winning scientists Professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov.

Graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. It is a highly strong and extremely versatile substance and researchers believe that its potential applications are so numerous it could revolutionise fields such as electronics, information processing and energy storage.

In the new research, the team combined graphene with metallic nanostructures, leading to a twenty-fold enhancement in the harvesting of light to create energy. This paves the way for future advances in high-speed internet development and other communications.

Previous studies had already shown how graphene can be used to create an elementary solar cell. If two closely-spaced metallic wires are put on top of graphene and light is shone on the structure, it generates an electric voltage.

̽��ֱ��major stumbling block towards practical applications for these otherwise very promising devices has so far been their low efficiency, however. ̽��ֱ��problem is that graphene – the thinnest material in the world – absorbs little light (approximately just 3%), while the rest goes through it without contributing to electrical power.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge and Manchester team solved the problems by combining graphene with tiny metallic structures which are arranged on top of it. These so-called plasmonic nanostructures have dramatically enhanced the optical electric field felt by graphene and effectively concentrated light within the one-atom-thick carbon layer.

By using the plasmonic enhancement, the light-harvesting performance of graphene was boosted 20 times over, without sacrificing any of its speed. In future, the efficiency of graphene in this regard will be improved even further.

Professor Andrea Ferrari, from the Cambridge Engineering Department, who led the Cambridge effort in the collaboration, said: “So far, the main focus of graphene research has been on fundamental physics and electronic devices.”

“These results show its great potential in the fields of photonics and optoelectronics, where the combination of its unique optical and electronic properties with plasmonic nanostructures can be fully exploited, even in the absence of a bandgap, in a variety of useful devices, such as solar cells and photodetectors.”

Professor Novoselov, from the Manchester team, added: “ ̽��ֱ��technology of graphene production matures day by day, which has an immediate impact both on the type of exciting physics which we find in this material, and on the feasibility and the range of possible applications.”

“Many leading electronics companies consider graphene for the next generation of devices. This work certainly boosts graphene’s chances even further.”

̽��ֱ��paper, Strong Plasmonic Enhancement of Photovoltage in Graphene, by T. J. Echtermeyer, L. Britnell, P. K. Jasnos, A. Lombardo, R. V. Gorbachev, A. N. Grigorenko, A. K. Geim, A. C. Ferrari, and K. S. Novoselov, is available from: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1464.pdf

Researchers have discovered a crucial recipe for improving the characteristics of graphene devices for use as photodetectors in the next generation of pholtovoltaic devices for telecommunications and energy harvesting.

̽��ֱ��combination of graphene's unique optical and electronic properties with plasmonic nanostructures can be fully exploited, in a variety of useful devices, such as solar cells and photodetectors.

Andrea Ferrari

Graphene Flagship

Depiction of a graphene sheet.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes