Thanks to special steel plates, the University of Utah is implementing a computer that makes use of terahertz radiation instead of electricity

It will be the first computer powered by infrared rays rather than electricity, a super-computer capable of operating at terahertz radiation (far-infrared), the only still unexplored frontier in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is being developed by a group of scientists at the University of Utah. It will probably require ten years of work to be completed. Currently, the group of scientists are making waveguides, the appropriate "channels" that will convey radiation and transmit it from one point to another.

To mark a decisive step forward in research, the good results obtained by the use of special sheets of perforated stainless steel which are proving able to lead effectively terahertz radiation (the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is between microwaves and infrared, and whose wavelength is between 1 mm and 100 micrometers). As described in the study of Ajay Nahata (which will be published in Optics Express Friday April 18), these sheets will be "the matrix" on which to build the future of computer circuits. According to the surveys conducted so far, in fact, the number of perforations - arranged on a semi-regular on laminate - would maintain control over radiation, not disperse them over the surface of the material. There is still much to be found, for example, the way to drive rays, making them bend, split and reunited later.