Evanescent research

Researchers at

say they have built the world's first mode-locked silicon evanescent laser. The development is said to be a significant step toward combining lasers and other key optical components with the existing electronic capabilities in silicon.

According to a statement, the research provides a way to integrate optical and electronic functions on a single chip and enables new types of integrated circuits. It introduces a more practical technology with lower cost, lower power consumption and more compact devices.

Mode-locked evanescent lasers can deliver stable short pulses of laser light that are useful for many potential optical applications, including high-speed data transmission, multiple wavelength generation, remote sensing (LIDAR) and highly accurate optical clocks.

Computer technology now depends mainly on silicon electronics for data transmission. By causing silicon to emit light and exhibit other potentially useful optical properties, integration of photonic devices on silicon becomes possible. However, it has previously proved nearly impossible to create a laser in silicon.