Nanotech and fibre:
ready for the future

Nanotech and fibre: ready for the future

The term ‘nanotechnology’ covers the processing, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials at the level of a single atom or by molecule. Nanotechnology is making electronic, optical and optoelectronic components possible that could lower cost or and increase process precision of electronics. This field of research is key to enabling communications over higher frequencies than those used today, making it essential to the 60-100GHz devices that are expected to appear in the coming years. Nanotechnology also has the potential to solve current data storage and retrieval bottlenecks, and realise new, more efficient ways of storing data. In addition, the integration of nano-components into sensors and devices should provide a huge impetus for the Internet of Things.

The field of Nanophotonics carries out research into the interaction of light with matter on the nanometre scale, resulting in new application possibilities and technologies. Incorporating nano-features into optical fibres opens up many new possibilities. Nano-engineered optical fibres have applications in communications networks, as well as areas such as environmental and safety monitoring, chemical and biological sensing, and medical research. One of the key applications in communications is using nanotechnology to help confine light in photonic crystal fibres.

Fibre photonics allows for the cost-effective fabrication of diffractive optical elements directly on the facet of an optical fibre, allowing optical functions such as light splitting or focusing. Instead of just transporting light between two points, an optical fibre with nano-features can introduce different kinds of waveguiding phenomena. This also allows the use of photonic band gap effects to confine light in a hollow core fibre. The result: lower latency, excellent power handling and possibly even ultralow loss - all of which would be impossible to realise with ‘traditional’ optical fibre.

Carbon nanotubes

A carbon nanotube is a tube-shaped material, made of carbon, which has a nanometre scale diameter. The fact that the growth of carbon nanotubes is difficult to control precisely can be leveraged to produce a saturable absorber that controls pulsed laser outputs over a much wider band than traditional semiconductors. Standard erbium-doped laser diodes used in fibre optic communications networks provide a constant beam, but adding a saturable absorber produces a pulsed output, which is far more useful in communications networks.  

Optical computing

Nanoscale optical components can also be used to adapt fibre optics for transporting data within computers. Light may carry data between microprocessor cores within a computer chip and between separate chips within a computer, just as fibre optic cable carries data as light between telecommunication hubs. Metallic carbon nanotubes, which have better conductive properties than metal, could entirely replace the current technology, which sends data along metal paths. Researchers are currently developing nanoscale light sources, which are electrically driven optical switches and routers that can convert electrical data into optical data, route it to a microprocessor core, and convert it back to electrical data for processing. Computers based on this technology are considerably faster than anything available today. This method, which circumvents the resistance of metal, might also lower power consumption.

Clearly, nanotechnology has a great deal to offer in the area of fibre networks. Of course, as with all innovations, cost reduction will prove an important driver for adoption. Once nanophotonic technologies can compete with existing solutions on price, they should rapidly gain the market share.

The potential of carbon materials

Prysmian has long focused on nanotechnology with the aim of facilitating the commercial uptake of nano-carbon based materials. The issues of concern in this rapidly evolving field were discussed at the 6th Nano-Carbon Enhanced Materials Consortium (NCEM-6), hosted by Prysmian at its HQ in Milan.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the consortium members, Airbus Group (UK), RTE (France), GE Global Research (US), Bose Corporation (US), International Copper Association (US), and the newest members since the beginning of 2017, Rolls Royce (UK), Whirlpool Corporation (US), ArcelorMittal (Spain), NISSAN (UK-Russia), Tecnalia (Spain), Johnson Matthey Plc. (UK).  

As a member of NCEM, Prysmian has long held an interest in nanotechnology, as it is one of the multiple fields being explored as part of the company’s continuous R&D activity. Prysmian is currently studying nanotech with the aim of obtaining new and extremely highly performing materials such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, nanofillers, and more.

Prysmian is developing new products using materials and technologies that do not yet have a market, but for which it is believed a market will exist in five or ten years. Said products might be useful as a barrier against liquids entering the cables, against fire or even to replace conductors, but the costs of achieving such performance remains yet to be assessed.

Last year the Group signed a cooperation agreement with the US-based Nanocomp Technologies Inc., a world-leading company specialising in the production of carbon nanotube-based products and materials. The two companies agreed to join forces to test and improve the use of these technologies in power transmission, power distribution, telecom networks, control and instrumentation applications. Prysmian and Nanocomp have also agreed to evaluate, at a later stage of the project, whether to commence large-scale production of products and technologies developed as result of their research.