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[theweaselking]

Scientists at Intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to generate and amplify laser light.

The breakthrough should make it easier to interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information.

The Intel researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by the end of the decade.

Dr Paniccia said that the structure of silicon means that when laser light passes through it, some colliding photons rip electrons off the atoms within the material.

"It creates a cloud of electrons sitting in the silicon and that absorbs all the light," he said.

But the Intel researchers have found a way to suck away these errant electrons and turn silicon into a material that can both generate and amplify laser light.

Even better, the laser light produced in this way can, with the help of easy to make filters, be tuned across a very wide range of frequencies.

Semi-conductor lasers made before now have only produced light in narrow frequency ranges.

The result could be the close integration of the fibre optic cables that carry data as light with the computer chips that process it.

Dr Paniccia said the work was the one of several steps needed if silicon was to be used to make components that can carry and process light in the form of data pulses.

"It's a technical validation that it can work," he said.