Abstract

Optics and lasers are now being introduced into computing technology. Increasing demand for faster computer and the thermal and quantum mechanical limitations encountered as a result of the standard practice of increasing transistor density and shrinking microprocessor chip size has necessitated the need for multiprocessing system comprising thousand or tens of thousands of individual microprocessors. These Giga-processors however are still subject to the limited bandwidth and signal transmission speed of copper or other metal interconnects. These limitations are primarily due to the maximum velocity of electrons in copper which is determined by the electron drift velocity. Optical interconnect has been proposed as a solution to this problem and is presently an active area of research and development with several potential configurations been developed tested and built into prototypes. Some present day machines already have some aspect of optical interconnect incorporated into them. This presentation delineated the research and development of an optical interconnect system or and optical backplane based on the magneto-optic effec or Faraday Effect. It also delineates the development of magneto-optical logic device and computing elements necessary to build a magneto-optical computer. Issues pertaining to the engineering of YIG magneto-optic waveguide and the fabrication of micro and nano-photonics elements necessary for implementing these devices will be discussed. Also discussed are topics pertaining to magnetization dynamics and the elimination of birefringence in Bi:YIG waveguides.

© 2014 Optical Society of America