Groundbreaking research on the performance of optical diodes by Professor Wu Jeong-won (Physics) and Hwang Ji-soo (Ph.D in Physics) was published in the April 24 issue of ?ature Materials, a London-based scientific journal, which publishes cutting-edge research in materials science. The research titled, ?lectro-tunable Optical Diode Based on Photonic Bandgap Liquid-Crystal Heterojunctions, was co-conducted with scholars from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
   The research team discovered that optical diodes will emit light in either their natural direction or in the reverse direction depending on the polarization of the light, and investigated how light emission would vary with change in the structure of the materials making up the diode.
   This discovery is an important contribution to information technology for the next generation of optical materials such as optical computers. By applying this technology, a computer might someday be developed to perform operations up to ten times faster than a conventional electronic computer.

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