Bursting the clouds for better communication
We live in an age of long-range information transmitted either by underground optical fibre or by radio satellites. But the throughput today is so great that radio frequency is no longer enough in itself. Research is turning toward the use of lasers which, although technically complex, have several advantages, especially when it comes to security. However, this new technology, currently in the testing phase, faces a major problem: clouds. Due to their density, clouds stop the laser beams and scramble the transfer of information. Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have devised an ultra-hot laser that creates a temporary hole in the cloud, which lets the laser beam containing the information pass through. They have published their results in the journal Optica.