By Peter Weiss
Researchers are striving to create photonic microcircuits that can manipulate photons as deftly as today’s microchips manipulate electrons. Light signals offer the potential for more-efficient information processing. Now, engineers have found a way to extend one of the most advanced capabilities in electronics directly into the photonics realm.
A team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that previously developed some of the world’s fastest electronic transistors has modified its record-setting technology to create a practical device that’s both an electronic transistor and an infrared laser, a photonic component.