Artificial Metamaterial Could Speed Up Underwater Communications

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. Earlier this year, Liu and his colleagues showed 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.