A one-carbon-atom-thick sheet of graphene has transformed a passive device into an active one that generates microwave photonic signals and performs parametric wavelength conversion at telecommunication wavelengths.

This optical nonlinear behavior could lead to broad applications in optical interconnects and low-power photonic integrated circuits (PICs).

"Graphene has been considered a wonderful electronic material where electron moves like an effectively massless particle in the atomically thin layer," notes Philip Kim, professor of physics and applied physics at Columbia. He is an early pioneer in graphene research and discovered its low-temperature high electronic conductivity. "And now, the recent excellent work done by … Columbia researchers demonstrates that graphene is also unique electro-optical material for ultrafast nonlinear optical modulation when it is combined with silicon photonic crystal structures."

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