A novel all-optical switching method makes optical computing and communication systems more power-efficient

https://phys.org/news/2022-06-all-optical-method-optical-power-efficient.html

"switching speed can be raised to an ultrafast time scale (femtosecond 10-15 sec) by replacing the electrons with plasmons. Plasmons are a combination of photons and a collection of electrons on the surface of metals. This enables optical switching with our device with femtosecond (10-15 sec) speeds," she states... L-shaped combination of metallic nanorods. One nanorods receives a linearly polarized signal and the other receives another linearly polarized 'control' beam perpendicular to the first beam"