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Science 27 June 1997:
Vol. 276. no. 5321, p. 1970
DOI: 10.1126/science.276.5321.1970
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Research News

OPTICS:
Tripping the Light at Fantastic Speeds

Robert F. Service

The speediest communication schemes today encode data as pulses of laser light fired through glass optical fibers. But the comparatively slow electronic switches that pulse the light on and off limit the overall speed of these systems. Now researchers at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and Osaka University in Japan have come up with a new polymer-based optical switch that has the potential to boost the data rate dramatically.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)