Lightwave Electronics: Attosecond Optical Switching

The current revolution in information technology is built on the development of semiconductor transistors and electronics over several decades. However, these electronics reached their advancement saturation limit in speed and size. Meanwhile, modern information and communication technology demands higher-speed electronics and faster communications. Hence, the scientific community has started to search for a replacement technology. Recently, the accelerated advancement in ultrafast laser science and technology, including the generation of ultrashort synthesized pulses, has opened the door to the development of ultrafast optoelectronics. For instance, the synthesized field of subcycle pulses allowed demonstrating all-optical switching with attosecond (10^-18 of a second) speed, promising to establish optical transistors with petahertz speed a billion times faster than that of the typical semiconductor transistors. Moreover, controlling the time interval of the switching signals by synthesizing the light field with the attosecond resolution enables digital binary data encoding on ultrafast laser pulses. This advancement would allow transferring data on laser beams for long distances with an enhanced speed of 1 petahertz/s. Here, we present the recent progress and the future of ultrafast optics electronics, their applications in life, and their remarkable potential impact on future technology.