Germanium Lasers To Offer Optical Computing?

The brilliant minds over a MIT have demonstrated the first laser that’s built from germanium, which is able to produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication. Aside from that, it’s also the first germanium laser to operate at room temperature. While it might not be immediately obvious, one of the benefits of using germanium is that it’s easy to incorporate into the existing process for manufacturing silicon chips. Considering that we’ve been looking to go beyond simple electrical currents to transport our data, this is certainly a bold step in the right direction, as it’ll allow computers to move data using light, instead of electricity. Of course, don’t expect to see this incorporated into the next computer you’re buying, but hopefully they’ll make some good research on this, and we’ll have some really cool computers in the near future, eh?