University of Otago physicists have used a small glass bulb containing an atomic vapor to demonstrate a new form of antenna for radio waves. The bulb was "wired up" with laser beams and could therefore be placed far from any receiver electronics.

Apparently it can cover more frequencies than a typical antenna design. Cool

[–] ubermeisters@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Simultaneously also I think

Edit: or maybe not

[–] neptune@dmv.social 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Really. Wouldn't broadcasting on all spectrums basically just be noise?

Edit: the article says "have broad tunability" which I take to mean that no, they just operate on one frequency at a time

[–] stifle867@programming.dev 1 points 11 months ago

It covers more frequencies as in wavelengths as in the bigger the wavelength the bigger the length of the antenna (to put it simply). In this case they're saying you wouldn't need to make it as large as a conventional antenna to receive the same frequencies, or you could make it large and receive more frequencies.

[–] ubermeisters@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hmm alright, maybe I misunderstood that part, I was thinking that meant ability to broadcast a gamut of signal.

[–] neptune@dmv.social 1 points 11 months ago

I do think it can receive on many frequencies at once. But I think the Fourier transform won't be able to untangle a signal if that signal is broadcast continuously on all frequencies.