Germanium could be the key ingredient needed to integrate high-speed optical interconnects with silicon integrated-circuit chips and two independent groups have taken important steps toward germanium-on-silicon structures. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) have grown germanium photodetectors on silicon and are developing germanium lasers. Last month at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM; Washington, D.C.), CheeWee Liu of National Taiwan University (Taipei, Taiwan) reported room-temperature operation of an electronically pumped germanium laser, although it was not on silicon.
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