Breakthrough By McMaster PhD Student Creates Laser In Silicon (mcmaster.ca) 60
Long-time Slashdot reader thisisnotreal writes: Long sought-after, and previously thought impossible — a McMaster University PhD student in Hamilton Canada demonstrates a cost-effective and simple laser in silicon.
This could have dramatic consequences for the SiP (Silicon Photonics) — a hot topic for those working in the field of integrated optics. Integrated optics is a critical technology involved in advanced telecommunications networks, and showing increasing importance in quantum research and devices, such as QKD (Quantum Key Distribution) and in various entanglement type experiments (involved in Quantum Compute).
"This is the holy grail of photonics," says Jonathan Bradley, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Physics (and the student's co-supervisor) in an announcement from McMaster University. "Fabricating a laser on silicon has been a longstanding challenge." Bradley notes that Miarabbas Kiani's achievement is remarkable not only for demonstrating a working laser on a silicon chip, but also for doing so in a simple, cost-effective way that's compatible with existing global manufacturing facilities. This compatibility is essential, as it allows for volume manufacturing at low cost. "If it costs too much, you can't mass produce it," says Bradley.
This could have dramatic consequences for the SiP (Silicon Photonics) — a hot topic for those working in the field of integrated optics. Integrated optics is a critical technology involved in advanced telecommunications networks, and showing increasing importance in quantum research and devices, such as QKD (Quantum Key Distribution) and in various entanglement type experiments (involved in Quantum Compute).
"This is the holy grail of photonics," says Jonathan Bradley, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Physics (and the student's co-supervisor) in an announcement from McMaster University. "Fabricating a laser on silicon has been a longstanding challenge." Bradley notes that Miarabbas Kiani's achievement is remarkable not only for demonstrating a working laser on a silicon chip, but also for doing so in a simple, cost-effective way that's compatible with existing global manufacturing facilities. This compatibility is essential, as it allows for volume manufacturing at low cost. "If it costs too much, you can't mass produce it," says Bradley.
Psssh, I did this last week. (Score:3, Funny)
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I believe you 200%!
Re: Psssh, I did this last week. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Title is deceptive (Score:5, Informative)
The title seems deceptive as lasers on silicon have been around for quite a while.
The title is deceptive because the laser is not in the silicon. The headline changed one word from press release: the laser is on silicon. Details are in the paper: the laser is in a thulium-doped tellurium oxide, which, the paper states, is deposited on top of the silicon by "a low-temperature single-step sputter deposition".
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So, titty lasers? Got it!
Re: Psssh, I did this last week. (Score:4, Informative)
I think this will be like all the battery tech breakthroughs.. i.e not something they can commercialize
You should say it is like a lot of batter tech breakthroughs. A lot of them have been commercialize. You didn't hear about it, you just bought it.
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You should say it is like a lot of batter tech breakthroughs.
Cookie Monster approves.
Re: Psssh, I did this last week. (Score:5, Informative)
Well, solid state lasers aren't that special, really - a solid state laser is really just a really carefully created LED. The emissions are just from the same typically Gallium (arsenide/nitride/etc) combinations used to make traditional LEDs.
The thing is, the lasing cavity is just precisely machined to be an exact multiple of wavelength and polished in such a way to be a mirror so the light forms standing waves inside the cavity.
If you improperly drive a laser diode and burn out one of the mirror elements, you end up with a really expensive LED.
The only special thing happening now is instead of using gallium we're using silicon. As a nice side effect, this could lead to more interesting LED lamps as well because silicon is much cheaper. It would also make possible single chip LED drivers - fancy blinking LEDs and such are dual dies - they have a LED die using gallium, and a silicon die containing the blinky part. Integrating this into a single die offers many interesting possibilities including color-accurate LEDs where a single die can have RGB LEDs and be tuned to precise whitepoint since the driver is the same die.
Tellurite [Re: Psssh, I did this last week.] (Score:3)
The only special thing happening now is instead of using gallium we're using silicon.
The only special thing happening is that instead of gallium-based compounds, she's now using thulium-doped tellurite deposited on silicon.
Which is very likely useful, but not the same as getting silicon to lase (which, as the article points out, is extremely difficult due to some fundamental solid-state physics reasons).
As a nice side effect, this could lead to more interesting LED lamps as well because silicon is much cheaper.
Not if you mean LEDs that emit light you can see-- wavelength is 1.9 microns, well into the infrared.
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"The only special thing happening now is instead of using gallium we're using silicon"
Actually, we've been using silicon for a while, as a replacement substrate for synthetic sapphire. Direct lasing from silicon is another beast, entirely.
" fancy blinking LEDs and such are dual dies - they have a LED die using gallium, and a silicon die containing the blinky part"
Now days they're all already part of the same package, along with the protective zener diode.
" Integrating this into a single die offers many inte
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It's a Holy Grail. You bust your ass looking for the thing because having it's going to change your life, but after you do it ends up in the cupboard with the novelty coffee cups while you're out looking for a Holier Grail.
Nanopore sequencer (Score:5, Interesting)
I am thinking there are lots of possibilities for this sort of thing. Everything from VR displays to DNA sequencers. I mean, can they use this tech to sequence DNA as it passes through a solid-state nanopore? Right now nanopore sequencing is done by measuring changes in charge, but that's too error-prone for many applications. They might have to incorporate the light-squeezing tech from the previous slashdot article.
Re:Nanopore sequencer (Score:5, Funny)
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You know how widespread those annoying blue LEDs became once they figured out how to make them at scale? Yep, we're about to see lasers used as indicators on every consumer gadget they can cram one into. Lord help us.
Hmm (Score:1)
Serious potential. (Score:5, Interesting)
This honestly has a lot of potential, including the potential to reduce the cost of high-speed pulsed lasers. A significant drop in the cost of high-speed pulsed lasers would put things like SLM within reach of hobbyists (who want to 3d print metal things more than anything else). I hope this turns out to be as good as it sounds.
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I'm not sure it would fit that application. I suspect that this laser will be very low powered, to avoid problems with heat dissipation. Probably good for precision measurements, but it sounds like you want laser sintering, which takes a lot more power.
Re:Serious potential. (Score:4, Interesting)
You seem to be unaware that high speed pulsed laser are actually a composite for many small lasers. If they were simply large lasers then they would be continuous lasers which are low speed (it might take 200us compared to just 1.5ns). You can cheaply purchase high power CO2 lasers but you'll need to add at least a couple zeros to the price to get anything close to the same power that is high speed pulsed laser.
Since these lasers can be made using simple semiconductor manufacturing, it means that both the lasers and the controller can be produced together on the same die instead of being separate manufacturing which includes a specialized (see also: expensive) manufacturing processes for the laser diodes. Fewer parts also means fewer issues between the two components since they are all made together.
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You may be entirely correct that this advancement alone does little to lower the cost. However, I would also point out that this also presents new opportunities for other types of developments. For all I know, now it makes sense now to pursue integrating new things in packaging systems. New paradigms are rarely a single breakthrough but rather they are a chain of advancements.
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I doubt this innovation will have any impact on SLM solutions. Low power / communication applications will be most impacted.
With this innovation we might finally be able to create a fiber based Thunderbolt interface which does not cost a fortune. The original rumors regarding Thunderbolt all indicated that it would be fiber. And if it was, the bandwidth could be increased by a factor of 10 and external GPUs will finally make sense.
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External GPUs won't make sense as long as it's more profitable to simply keep them internal.
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What? It's waaay more profitable to sell people new laptops.
Re: Kiani is an Iranian name isn't it - I thought (Score:1)
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The USA do not want that Iran slowly converts into a "normal state" again.
They can not remove the government - obviously.
But their solution is to put hardships on the population.
How is that supposed to change anything?
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You need to realize that "United" means geographically, not politically. Some of us wouldn't mind if Iran converted to a normal state.
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I cannot read "McMaster"... (Score:3)
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It's worse than you think. They've changed it now, but a few years ago, the university's water polo team was called the Bators. I'm not kidding. I used to work there, and report regularly on the McMaster Bators.
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I cannot read "McMaster" without, in my head, also reading
With fries and coke.
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Skip the fluff, get the source... (Score:2, Informative)
I don't know why OP didn't just link to the damn paper [wiley.com].
Re:Skip the fluff, get the source... (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know why OP didn't just link to the damn paper [wiley.com].
The link to the paper literally is the second link in the summary...
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...and linking to the paper directly rather than some PR fluff piece would've been better. Saved you a click.
Re:Skip the fluff, get the source... (Score:4, Informative)
You didn't save any click. You pointlessly linked a link that was already linked and then announced to the world on Slashdot that you didn't even bother reading TFS. Now that you've doubled down on your mistake what will you do next?
Lasers in silicone breasts?! (Score:1)
Fuck yeah! [media-amazon.com]
as usual, misleading headline (Score:1)
A laser in silicon, would, you know, actually be made of silicon and lase.
This is a hybrid creation which uses elements compatible with the Si manufacturing process.
Also it can't "really" lase. It requires pumping by, a laser.
The hybrid laser is pumped at standard telecom wavelengths around 1.6 um
Seems like "laser on silicon" stories show up on a fairly regular basis, but they never really are a "Silicon laser".
Requiring a laser to pump it doesn't qualify, for obvious reasons, as a true laser, i.e. the us
Re:as usual, misleading headline (Score:4, Informative)
All lasers require pumping. Where do you get the idea that means it is not a 'true laser'? 'Optical gain' IS lasing. This is providing optical gain - it is a laser. And it is implemented in silicon.
Your last quote is a statement of the problem this is solving, not a statement about this solution.
Good work...but yes: as usual, misleading headline (Score:2)
cats-paw's main point is correct; this isn't a laser actually be made of silicon, but one that uses elements compatible with the Si manufacturing process.
You are also correct, all lasers are pumped, and optical pumping is common enough (we still call diode-pumped lasers "lasers" even though the diodes that pump them are themselves lasers). In this case, it's a laser, and not just an amplifier, because the input wavelength is different from the laser wavelength-- that is, it is not merely amplifying the inpu
Evolution of lasers (Score:2)
Quite honestly, I don't see what benefit this breakthrough offers other than "we can put a laser on the same s
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In 1988, I saw a conventional laser
And you haven't learned a thing since?
Quite honestly, I don't see what benefit this breakthrough offers other than "we can put a laser on the same substrate as the logic circuitry".
How do you not see that's a big deal? Miniaturization drives cost reductions.
McMaster (Score:2)
Re: excellent discovery (Score:2)
Working in an empty lab can be a perk. Sharing instrumentation and workspace with competing projects can be a major bitch.
frikken... (Score:1)
TLDR; is this about sand sharks?
It's infra-red. (Score:2)
"The hybrid laser is pumped at standard telecom wavelengths around 1.6 m and exhibits stable single-mode emission at 1.9 m, with an internal slope efficiency of 60% and >1 mW on-chip output power."
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"The hybrid laser is pumped at standard telecom wavelengths around 1.6 m and exhibits stable single-mode emission at 1.9 m, with an internal slope efficiency of 60% and >1 mW on-chip output power."
That's 1610 nm and 1906 nm. Slashdot dropped the micro symbol.
Lots of inventions have potential (Score:2)
Stanford generated a way to make gallium arsonide semiconductors at a hundredth the previous cost, but it's unclear to me if this ever became commercially viable.
Manchester developed asynchronous SPPARC CPUs, but there the interest really was close to zero.
Winners of the Prince of Wales Award got innovation have included water-repellant paint and fire alarms designed to help you navigate a smoke-filled room. Both were commercialized, neither are exactly successful.
Being a Good Idea, even a Great Idea, isn't