Light Emitting Silicon Steps It Up

h4mm3r writes "STMicroelectronics plans to announce a breakthrough on Monday in light-emitting silicon that could lead to a new generation of more powerful computing processors and more efficient automobile components as well as potentially higher-speed optical data-transmission systems. (gotta register, free yadda yadda)"

Comments

Re:Very challenging to do

[Drakula]

You have a very good point.

However, the fact that Si has an indirect bandgap means it will never be as efficient as its direct gap brethren, such as GaAs.

The addition of a rare earth element such as Erbium increase the light output substantially as you say. However, the emission spectrum is very broad and likely undesired. A rare earth dopant and a resonant cavity structure however would be a good candidate for efficient emission.