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University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers produced the smallest ribbons of graphene yet created, at about 12 nanometers in width, in efforts to use the all-carbon, ultra-thin and adaptable material to improve internet and other kinds of telecommunications performance. The structures, which act like tiny antennas that interact with light, are too small to see with the naked eye.From radio to television to the internet, telecommunications transmissions are simply information carried on light waves and converted to electrical signals.
Silicon-based fiber optics are currently the best structures for high-speed, long distance transmissions, but graphene — an all-carbon, ultra-thin and adaptable material — could improve performance even more.