Silicon photonics is the innovative study and application of photonic
systems for generating, processing, manipulating and otherwise using
light for faster data transmission both between and within microchips.
Silicon is used as the optical medium. Operation is in infrared
wavelengths (commonly 1.55 micrometers), which are used in fiber-optic
telecommunication systems.
Silicon photonics, with its
ultra-fast data transfer between and within microchips, will
significantly determine future progress in computer technology and the
continuation of Moore’s law.
Silicon photonics is being aggressively researched by both IBM and Intel
for semiconductor fabrication techniques. These techniques integrate
both optical and electronic components on microchips as they attempt to
validate Moore’s law, which states that the number of transistors on an
integrated circuit should double every two years.
The presence
of nonlinearity and nonlinear optical phenomena (such as the Kerr
effect, Raman effect, free charge carrier interactions and two-photon
absorption) enables light to interact with light, which allows many
things of great academic interest, including wavelength conversion,
all-optical signal routing and silicon waveguides.
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