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Light-Producing Nanotubes Could Mean Faster Chips

Posted by timothy on from the making-light-of-carbon dept.

CannibalBob writes "From PCWorld: Researchers at IBM have used carbon molecules to emit light, a breakthrough that could replace silicon as the foundation of chips and lead to faster computers and telecommunication equipment. This is the first time light has ever been generated from a molecule by applying electricity. Read the article."

15 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. First time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How do light bulbs work? True, they burn as a side effect of being heated, but you apply electricity, and you [eventually] get light. Then there's the the whole laser thing... Florcent tubes?

  2. Stability by tijnbraun · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm a complete ignorant about these things. But how stable are these systems that work on nano levels? For instance if I would give my computer a hard kick, would it be affected in any way? The energy levels it works on are so low.

  3. Nanotube display? by Tyrdium · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If they managed to refine this enough, could we be seeing nanotube displays some time in the future? And how would the power drain compare to that of an LCD or OLED display?

    1. Re:Nanotube display? by AttillaTheNun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Exactly what I was thinking. Imagine the resolution you would get from a 21" nano-tube display. At 1.4 nm diameter, assuming you could align these in a perfect grid (and my math isn't totally screwed up), you would have a theoretical max resolution of 17.857 million dots/inch or 375,000,000 x 281,250,000 pixels in a 21" screen :) You'll need a mofo graphics card to drive it, of course :)

  4. Re:First Time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    ... with enough power ANYTHING could emit light.. if only for a brief time

    A classmate of mine managed to get an ordinary transistor to generate light. The case drew blood, where it hit his forehead. Yes, it was a very brief flash.

    Someone else already pointed out that getting light out of a single molecule really is new. Unless you count burning Buckyballs.

  5. Re:Mass Production by anonymous+loser · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I'm not against plausible speculations to applied science, but it just seems that the carbon nano-tube technology is still in its beginning phases, and we won't see these 'small optical fibers' or any other applied devices anytime before 2020.

    The first semiconductor transistor (the point-contact transistor) was produced in 1947. The junction field-effect transistor was invented a few weeks later, and the first working prototype was produced in 1949. By 1958 integrated circuits were being made with them.

  6. Maybe as a corollary? by OrbNobz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Would it stand to reason that these devices would _generate_ electricity when bombarded by photons? Or would they be destroyed?
    I'm sure several orders of magnitude more of these nanotubes would fit in the space of a solar cell.
    Stephenson's aerostats just might work. :)
    Perhaps someone with a background could answer.

    - OrbNobz
    I don't care about the answer, the nano-machine operating my fingers is asking.

    1. Re:Maybe as a corollary? by damien_kane · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Would it stand to reason that these devices would _generate_ electricity when bombarded by photons?

      Nope, they explode

  7. Could another electrical engineer tell me if... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    they're talking about making a MOSFET? I can't imagine them creating a light BJT...how would that work, anyway? Is beta then the ratio of the number of photons?

  8. Re:How to use for computers? by Absurd+Being · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Obviously, you use the light, run back through nanotubes, to turn into electricity. See also: LED's and Solar Panels (which are also essentially diodes) Every $%@ physical process is reversible.

    --
    Karma: Excellent^(-t/Tau), Tau=Wittiness/Trollishness
  9. Re:First Time... by L7_ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No, its not.

    IIRC, one of the more recent topics in modern biochemistry/biophysics is isolating DNA 'molecules' (about the same size as some of the carbon tubes) and exciting them in different ways. Different ways that include photon and electron scattering (or 'passing electricity').

    I'm not too sure on the results, and was too lazy to find the correct terms through google, but i know that single molecule systems have been seen to produce light through electron scattering.

  10. Isn't it felicitous... by BigBadBri · · Score: 5, Interesting
    that these nanotubes happen to emit at around 1500nm, which is a good wavelength for fibre optics?

    Thinking about it, would it not be feasible to make them emit harmonics (375nm blue, anyone?) for use in optical storage too?

    I'm just a dumb old maths guy, not a physicist, but surely someone can enlighten us?

    --
    oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
  11. Another application: Nano optocouplers? by VCAGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In theatrical lighting, the power stage is separated from the signal side by an optocoupler--which basically ensures that if the power stage leaks 240VAC, it won't travel down the DMX wire and fry everything else.

    I wonder if they could use these "lighted" carbon nanotubes to put an optocoupler directly on the IGBT of the dimmer...that, as my coworkers would say, would be "freakin' awesome"!

    --
    Q: "Why do sound techs say 'check 1, 2'?"
    A: "Cause if they could count any higher they'd be lighting techs."
  12. nanoprinting? by Dossy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd like to know if these light-emitting nanotubes can be used for nanoprinting of ultra-dense transistor chips. Talk about entering into the next age of computing power ...

    -- Dossy

    --
    Dossy's Blog
  13. Re:First Time... by Goldsmith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What they're really claiming is the world's smallest solid state light emmitter. I guess if you define a nanotube as the smallest possible solid state structure, there you go.

    Dr. Wilson Ho has been doing this for a while at UCI with individual atoms.

    You really should check that out. It's hard to believe, but true.