bandgap
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Germanium lasers offer ray of hope for optical computing
Bandwidth scarcity, is there any more pressing global issue that we're faced with today? We think not. Given the exponential growth in both computing power and software's exploitation and expectation of greater resources, it's no surprise that at some point we'll have to look beyond simple electrical currents as the transporters of our data. One bold step taken in that direction has been the demonstration of an operational germanium-on-silicon laser by researchers at MIT. By tweaking the electron count in germanium atoms with the help of some added phosphorous, they've been able to coax them into a photon-emitting state of being -- something nobody thought possible with indirect bandgap semiconductors. Perhaps the best part of this is that germanium can be integrated relatively easily into current manufacturing processes, meaning that light-based internal communication within our computers is now at least a tiny bit closer to becoming a reality.
IBM opens up graphene bandgap, edges closer to commercialization
Graphene transistors have long been touted as the next big thing to deliver a true leap in electronics of all sorts, but there's been a few considerable limitations holding them back from fully replacing silicon. IBM now says it's managed to overcome one of the biggest hurdles, however, and has announced that it's been able to open a "bandgap" for graphene field-effect transistors (or FETs). As EETimes reports, that's important because while graphene does have a higher carrier mobility than silicon, it doesn't have a natural bandgap, which has so far kept the on-off ratio of graphene transistors far lower than their silicon counterparts. Of course, IBM insists that its still only just scratched the surface, and says that it's already hard at work on opening up an even wider bandgap, achieving even higher electric fields, further improving the on-off current ratios of graphene FETs.
