Good news for the computer industry: a team of researchers
has managed to make germanium suitable for lasers. This could enable
microprocessor components to communicate using light in future, which will make
the computers of the future faster and more efficient.
Researchers from ETH Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute
(PSI) and the Politecnico di Milano have jointly developed a manufacturing
technique to render the semiconductor germanium laser-compatible through high
tensile strain. In their paper recently published in Nature Photonics, they reveal
how they can generate the necessary tensile strain efficiently.