Intel Announces Laser Breakthrough: Silicon laser runs non-stop

Intel has just announced a breakthrough in laser technology allowing a continuous laser wave on a silicon chip. Apparently they devised a method to sap the interfering field of electrons previously generated in silicon by the lasers. Intel says that hardware exploiting the advance might begin appearing at the end of the decade.

The world's first silicon chip capable of producing a high-quality continuous laser beam. Eight lasers are built into a single chip.

Intel researchers test the laser chip - the beam exits through the thin optical fiber on the right.

"Our silicon laser runs continuously at room temperature for as long as the power is on," says Rong, whose results are published in this week's Nature1. "This is a significant advance for the development of practical silicon lasers," comments Jérôme Faist, a physicist at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.