Scientists have accomplished the what appears to be milestone by generating a high-performance Miniature laser on-chip. The revolutionary technology possesses the capability to change the face of much more than just computing, including data transfer speeds within the micro processors and further more on efficient optical communication networks.
Lasers on silicon is a hard problem because these materials are fundamentally different than the atoms which constitute it. Silicon: The foundation of the modern electronics industry is an indirect bandgap semiconductor, which is poor at emitting light. As for traditional lasers, these are fabricated from direct band-gap materials such as GaAs or InP which is hard and costly to integrate within silicon.
Researchers have surmounted this barrier using different growth routes, however. Through precise atomic manipulation on depositing certain materials over silicon substrate in a specific format, they have demonstrated a true Miniature laser with the efficiency and stability operation which can be practical. The accomplishment gets over the tedious process of bonding, or hybridisation of laser components onto 100nm silicon chips monolithically.
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This move has wide implications on the future evolution of computing. Direct integration of lasers onto silicon chips would make data transmission into and out of computer processors faster and more energy efficient. Optical interconnects use light, not electrical signals; hence it can carry massive quantities of data at much faster and with much lower power requirements than copper wiring when packing density is the limiting factor in chip performance.
This technology would also change the face of optical communication networks. Fully integrating and laser on a silicon photonic chip may finally make transceivers for compact data-center/lightwave telecommunications infrastructure thin, low-cost and low-power for high-speed data transfer.
That could one day mean faster and more smooth internet speeds.
In addition to computing and communication, these silicon-integrated Miniature laser devices are also envisaged for sensing, imaging or quantum technologies.
» Their micro size, ultra-low power consumption and wafer-scale fabrication on silicon wafers make them appealing for a variety of advanced applications.
The demonstration of a working, ultra-high performance-miniature laser grown directly on a silicon chip is a substantial step towards deploying the technology in commercial & practical applications, says Umair. It gives way for the bright future of integrated photonics and the next-generation of faster, more efficient & powerful computing systems.
This technology could be commercially manufactured using existing silicon manufacturing capabilities for much lower cost than alternatives on this light-speed access road leading the laser.
