Researchers from the University of Utah have discovered that a special kind of perovskite can be layered on a silicon wafer to create a vital component for the communications system of the future. That system would use the terahertz spectrum, the next generation of communications bandwidth that uses light instead of electricity to move data.
By depositing a special form of multilayer perovskite onto a silicon wafer, then team can modulate terahertz waves passing through it using a simple halogen lamp. Modulating the amplitude of terahertz radiation is important because it is how data in such a communications system would be transmitted.