Using Germanium laser future computers can use light instead of electricity to move data!
If research done by scientists at MIT’s Electronic Research Group is anything to go by then future computers could well use light instead of electricity to move data. MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication. Meaning, in future we could have a computer that instead of using conventional electricity computes using light energy, ultimately helping save huge amount of electricity and reducing the effect of global warming!
The main reason for using germanium in lasers is that it can be easily incorporated into existing processes for manufacturing silicon chips.
More fundamentally, the researchers have shown that, contrary to prior belief, a class of materials called indirect-band-gap semiconductors can yield practical lasers.
[Read more at MIT]
