Laser light from silicon

Since the creation of the first working laser – a ruby model made in 1960 – scientists have fashioned these light sources from substances ranging from neon to sapphire. Silicon, however, was not considered a candidate. Its structure would not allow for the proper line-up of electrons needed to get this semiconductor to emit light.

Now a trio of Brown University researchers, led by engineering and physics professor Jimmy Xu, have created the first directly pumped silicon laser. They did it by changing the atomic structure of silicon itself. This was accomplished by drilling billions of holes in a small bit of silicon using a nanoscale template. The result was aweak but true laser light. Results are published in an advanced online edition of Nature Materials.

In order to make his silicon laser commercially viable, Xu said, it must be engineered to be more powerful and to operate at room temperature as right now it works at 200°C below zero. But a material with the electronic properties of silicon and the optic properties of a laser would find uses in the electronics and communications industries, helping to make faster, more powerful computers or fibre optic networks.