An optical oscilloscope was developed. Will it make the internet 10 times faster?

At the University of Central Florida became the first optical oscilloscope the world developed. The device could do the Communication technologies revolutionize, from smartphones to the internet. The device developed at UCF measures the electric field of light by converting light oscillations into an electrical signal.

So far, the measurement of the electric field of light due to its enormous Vibration speed a big problem. The most advanced measurement techniques used in electronic and telecommunications equipment allow the measurement of frequencies on the order of gigahertz. This includes the radio and microwave spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation. However, light vibrates at a much higher frequency. So it is possible to put in a lot more information than we do today. However, we do not have the appropriate tools. Current oscilloscopes perform averaged measurements within a light pulse. You cannot distinguish between individual valleys and wave crests. If we could measure individual valleys and mountains, we could encode information into them.

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With Fiber optics we can use light to transmit information, but we are still limited by the speed of oscilloscopes, says Professor Michael Chini. Our optical oscilloscope can increase the speed of information transmission by up to Increase 10.000 times.

The Florida scientists built their device and demonstrated its capabilities by making real-time measurements of the electric fields of individual laser light pulses. In the next phase of their research, they want to find out where the insurmountable limit of measurement speed lies with their technology.