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With the increasing demand for alternative energy across the world, and concerns for greenhouse gas emissions, innovations in solar cells are also increasing. Here is another such development — making nanoscopic metal cables — hundreds of times smaller than a human hair — transmit light.

According to the researchers, this new way of producing energy-efficient lights can also be applied in making artificial retinas and quantum computing components! To make the diameter smaller than the wavelength of visible light, a coaxial cable is shrunk by a factor of 10,000.

Leading the research, Jakub Rybczynski from Boston College, US explained,

Our coax works just like the one in your house, except now for visible light.

Unlike the ordinary coaxial cable, this new light transmitting cable is nanoscopic. It measures only 300 nanometres in diameter!

Invisible to the human eye, it is shorter than the shortest visible wavelength. Though, normally light waves can’t penetrate structures smaller than their length, a length of nanotube protrudes from this cable’s end. It thus acts as an optical antenna for guiding the light into the structure

Guided in the same way as a normal coaxial cable guides radio waves, light waves in the new system can travel through the aluminium oxide layer.