New “gyromorphic” materials could make computers absurdly fast

The gyromorph materials now created combine order and disorder to provide unprecedented light-blocking power for next-generation photonic computers.

A team of researchers from New York University (NYU) created “giromorfos“, a new type of metamaterial that combines randomness similar to that of liquids with large-scale structural patterns to block light from all directions.

This innovationo resolves long-standing limitations in concepts based on quasicrystals and could accelerate advances in photonic computing.

In recent years, researchers have been exploring a new generation of computers that work using light, or photonsinstead of electrical currents.

Systems that rely on light to store and process information could one day work much more efficiently and complete calculations much faster than conventional machines.

Light-based computing is still at an early stageand one of the main technical obstacles involves the control of small light fluxes that travel through a chip.

Reroute these microscopic signals without weakening them requires carefully developed materials. To keep signals strong, the hardware must include a lightweight substance that blocks stray light from entering from any direction.

This type of material is known as “isotropic bandgap material“, explains .

Discovery of Gyromorphs at NYU

Scientists at New York University have now identified a new material, which they have named “giromorfos“, which responds to this challenge more effectively than any other known framework.

These gyromorphs combine features normally associated with liquids and crystals, but surpass both in its ability to block incident light from all angles.

The discovery, presented in a published in Physical Review Lettersintroduces an innovative strategy for tuning optical behavior and could help advance the development of photonic computers.

“Gyromorphs are unlike any known structure in that their unique composition gives rise to better isotropic bandgap materials than are possible with current approaches,” he says. Stefano Martinianiprofessor of mathematical physics and neuroscience at NYU and lead author of the paper.

For decades, researchers resorted to quasicrystals when designing isotropic bandgap materials. These structures, first proposed by physicists Paul Steinhardt e Dov Levine in the 1980s and subsequently observed byr Dan Schechtmanthey follow mathematical rules but do not repeat themselves like traditional crystals.

Despite their promise, quasicrystals present a disadvantage noticed by the NYU team. Can completely block lightbut only from limited directions.

Alternatively, can dim the light coming from all directions, but ftry to stop it completely. This limitation has led scientists to look for alternatives that can block signal-degrading light more comprehensively.

New metamaterials

In their study, researchers at NYU created “metamaterials”which are developed structures whose properties depend on your architecture and not its chemical composition.

One of the main challenges in designing these materials lies in understanding How your disposition leads to physical behaviors desired.

To overcome this, the team developed an algorithm capable of producing functional structures with built-in clutter. His work revealed a new way of “correlated disorder” which lies between the extremes of totally ordered and totally random.

“Think of the trees in a forest: they grow in random positions, but not completely random because they are normally at a certain distance from each other”, explains Martiniani.

“This new pattern, the gyromorphs, combines properties that we believed to be incompatible and presents a function that Outperforms all alternatives ordered, including quasicrystals.”

During their analysis, scientists observed that all isotropic bandgap materials exhibited a shared structural signature.

“We wanted to make this signature structural as pronounced as possible“explains Mathias Casiulisresearcher in the Department of Physics at NYU and first author of the article. “The result, gyromorphs, gives a new class of materials, which reconcile seemingly incompatible characteristics“.

“This is due to the fact that gyromorphs do not have a fixed structure and repetitive like a crystal, which gives them a liquid-like disorderbut at the same time, if we observe them from a distance, form patterns regular”, explains the researcher.

“These properties work together to create no-go bands that light waves cannot penetrate from any direction”, he concludes.