Revolutionary: Silicon that emits light! WOW!

Make the silicon emit light. It would be the promise of a new technology combining advantages of photonics with those of electronics. Researchers are announcing today that they have developed an alloy that would allow them to develop silicon-based lasers before the end of the year. A revolution !

The  silicon is the  material base of the electronics industry.And for years,scientists have hoped one day to be able to emit light from this silicon.Because if he could create and control  photons  like he does with  electrons,it would be a revolution.It would become possible to combine the speed of photons and the practicality of electrons.Today,researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) announce that they have developed an alloy capable of such performance.

Recall that the capacities of current electronic chips are limited by the  heat  emitted due to the  resistance  that electrons undergo when they circulate within  conductive materials. Devoid of  mass  and charge, photons - the particles of light - do not experience this problem.

But to use light in this way, you must first have an integrated laser type source. However,  silicon, the main semiconductor material  in computer chips, has proven particularly ineffective in  this area . This is why researchers have turned to more complex semiconductors, such as gallium  arsenide  or indium phosphoride . But they are expensive and difficult to integrate into existing silicon chips.

Soon silicon lasers

However, an old theory suggested that a hexagonal structure of silicon and  germanium would  present what  physicists  call a   direct gap . A gap allowing this type of material to emit light . And that's how researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology worked to develop such a material. Using nanowires from another material, they first succeeded in forcing pure silicon to adopt a hexagonal structure. On this model, they then built a shell of a silicon-germanium alloy.

 Unfortunately, it was unable to emit light. Until researchers increase the quality by reducing the number of impurities and crystal defects. And finally, the miracle happened: the new alloy now emits light very effectively.

From there, the researchers believe they will be able to develop a silicon-based laser in the course of 2020. Enough to integrate optical functions into the electronics and thus open up new perspectives. But before that, we will have to find a way to integrate this hexagonal silicon with the cubic silicon at the base of microelectronics.

WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER

·         Silicon is the basic material of electronics.

·         Combined with germanium, it can also emit light effectively.

·         What imagine manufacture silicon-based lasers.

·         And revolutionize the electronics sector.