A research team at the School of Engineering of Stanford has developed a superfast nanoscale light emitting diode (LED), which consumes very minimal power when compared to the laser-based devices and is capable of transmitting data at a speed of 10 billion b/s, paving the way for ultra-low power and light sources for transmitting on-chip computer data.
This illustration shows how a single nanophotonic single-mode LED is constructed (Credit: Gary Shambat, Stanford School of Engineering)
The research team, comprising Jelena Vuckovic and Gary Shambat, has reported about its device in the Nature Communications journal. Earlier this year, Vuckovic had developed a highly efficient, ultrafast nanoscale laser that can function only at temperatures lower than 150 K, which makes them unsuitable for commercial applications.
The new nanophotonic, single-mode LED functions at room temperature, which marks a major milestone in the development of future-generation computer processors. The single-mode LED is a unique diode that releases light mostly at one wavelength like a laser. The research team’s technology is based on nanophotonics. The team has introduced tiny isles of indium arsenide in the core of its device and the material generates light during the passage of electricity.
The indium arsenide isles are bounded by photonic crystal, which is an arrangement of small holes engraved on a semiconductor. The photonic crystal acts like a mirror to reflect the light towards the device’s center, trapping it within the LED and making it to transmit at a single frequency.
Current systems have a laser as well as an exterior modulator and both these devices need electricity. The nanoscale LED couples light generation and modulation functions in a single device so that it consumes only very low power. Vuckovic stated that the innovative LED’s energy efficiency is 2,000 to 4,000 folds better than that of the current devices.