Nanocoax carries visible light.(EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: academic)(Brief article)

R & D, February, 2007

Physicists at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass., have defied a key principle which holds that light cannot pass through a hole much smaller than its wavelength. The researchers forced visible light, with a wavelength between 380-750 nm, to travel down a cable with a diameter of about 300 nm. In order to achieve this, they developed a "nanocoax"-a carbon nanotube-based coaxial cable with a center wire that protrudes at one end, forming a light antenna. The other end is blunt, allowing them to measure the light transmitted through the cable.

* Boston College, www.bc.edu