Material Could Speed Up Underwater Communications by Orders of Magnitude

Electrical engineers at UC San Diego have demonstrated that artificial materials can significantly improve the speed of optical communications. The team showed that an artificial metamaterial can increase the light density and blink speed of a flourescent light-emitting dye molecule. Image credit: Liu Research Group/UC San Diego

Optical wireless communications could eventually replace underwater acoustic communications systems for short distance applications

University of California, San Diego electrical engineering professor Zhaowei Liu and colleagues have taken the first steps in a project to develop fast-blinking LED systems for underwater optical communications.

In a recent article in Nature Nanotechnology, Liu and colleagues show that an artificial metamaterial can increase the light intensity and “blink speed” of a fluorescent light-emitting dye molecule.

The nanopatterned layers of silver and silicon in the new material sped up the molecule’s blink rate to 76 times faster than normal, while producing an 80-fold increase in its brightness.

“The major purpose of this program is to develop a better light source for communication purposes,” Liu said. “But this is just a first step in the whole story. We have proved that this artificial, manmade material can be designed to enhance light emission and intensity, but the next step will be to apply this on conventional LEDs.”

Extreme blinking speed – ultrafast modulation – in blue and green LEDs is a missing link that is necessary for increasing the rate at which information can be sent via optical channels through the open water, such as between ships and submarines, submarines and divers, underwater environmental sensors and unmanned underwater vehicles, or other combinations.

If dramatically improved, optical wireless communications could eventually replace underwater acoustic communications systems for short distance applications. Acoustic communications are limited by slow speed and low data rates and may possibly cause distress to whales, dolphins and other marine life. To do this, they must develop blue and green LED systems that blink one or two orders of magnitude faster than today’s blue and green gallium nitride (GaN) based LEDs.

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