Modern computers are being used for many different things in the world, and as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, the demand for powerful processing is only expected to increase.

This processing requires a huge amount of electricity as well as lots of high-end equipment that is very expensive. According to a new study published in Nature Photonics, an advancement may have been made that could help to address the problem of ever-growing IT energy needs.

The study looks at nanocrystals that have been shown to be able to switch between glowing and dark extremely quickly. Quickly enough to be used for data processing.

This type of ability has been around for a while, but with previous materials, the surrounding environment could have a major impact on the state of the material. With some materials, for example, the temperature was what would control whether it was glowing or not. Precisely controlling the temperature for millions of these pieces of material is nearly impossible in most practical settings.

The nanocrystals in this study change state using precision lasers. Not only that, but they remain stable with much larger ranges than previously possible, so they could be turned on and off without impacting the surrounding crystals.

In a statement on the study, Dr. Artiom Skripka of Oregon State University said:

“Normally, luminescent materials give off light when they are excited by a laser and remain dark when they are not. In contrast, we were surprised to find that our nanocrystals live parallel lives. Under certain conditions, they show a peculiar behavior: They can be either bright or dark under exactly the same laser excitation wavelength and power.”

He went on to explain:

“If the crystals are dark to start with, we need a higher laser power to switch them on and observe emission, but once they emit, we can observe their emission at lower laser powers than we needed to switch them on initially. It’s like riding a bike – to get it going, you have to push the pedals hard, but once it is in motion, you need less effort to keep it going. And their luminescence can be turned on and off really abruptly, as if by pushing a button.”

Not surprisingly, there are still some difficulties to overcome with this new method. First, the experiments were done on nanocrystals that were cooled down to nearly -200° C (-328° F). Needless to say, that would be next to impossible in most practical environments.

Skripka is hopeful, however, that those obstacles will be overcome:

“More research is necessary to address challenges such as scalability and integration with existing technologies before our discovery finds a home in practical applications.”

Knowing that it is possible to use light-based processing is very exciting. Not only would it be dramatically more energy efficient, but it would also allow for much faster processing once fully developed.

Having millions of glowing microcrystals in a computer sounds cool!

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