14 DAY TRIAL // Intel researchers have built a continuously shining silicon laser that could drive down the cost of optical networking. This way, high bandwidth, light-based communication could become a reality not just between two computers, but between components inside the same PC.
Basically, what Intel managed to do was prove that silicon could be used to build a laser. It tends to absorb light energy, dissipating it as heat rather than amplifying it like lasers built with more exotic materials. Should research continue at this rate, the devices could be made in the same plants now used to build microprocessor and memory chips, which means no further investing for the production lines would be necessary.
It appears that silicon is a good material for Raman lasers, which are already being used in the fiber of long-haul telecommunications networks. Currently, laser beams are transported through glass fiber. By pumping the light into a specially-made chip, the natural atomic vibration in silicon amplifies the light as it passes through the chip. The amplification, called the Raman Effect, was more than 10,000 times stronger in silicon than in glass fibers.
The company said this was a breakthrough which could cut the cost of optical networks and help make fiber as common as copper wires.
Intel said the new technology had enormous impact because it could bring low-cost, high-quality lasers and optical devices to mainstream use in computing, communications and medical appliances.
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