Bandwidth scarcity, is there any more pressing global issue that we’re faced with this day? We think not. Given the exponential growth in both computing power and software’s exploitation and expectation of greater resources, it’s no surprise that at some point we’ll have to look beyond simple electrical currents as the transporters of our data. One bold step taken in that direction has been the demonstration of an operational germanium-on-silicon laser by researchers at MIT. By tweaking the electron count in germanium atoms with the help of some added phosphorous, they’ve been able to coax them into a photon-emitting say of being — something nobody thought possible with indirect bandgap semiconductors. Perhaps the ideal part of this is that germanium can be integrated relatively easily into current manufacturing processes, meaning that light-based internal communication within our personal is now at least a little bit closer to becoming a reality.
Germanium lasers offer ray of hope for optical computing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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