Australian scientists build nanowire lasers or make faster chips

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation a few days ago, Australian scientists say that future computer circuits will be fabricated on a three-dimensional scale, using light instead of electricity to operate. The idea comes from a study by a group of nanotechnologists at the Australian National University. They succeeded in generating laser light from nanowires that are only a few billionths of a meter in diameter. They point to the research findings as a key step on the road toward making future computer chips. The lead author of the research paper, Dehruf Sykesner, a doctoral student at the Australian National University, points out that there are many advantages to making computer circuits that use light. 'Light travels much faster than electrons,' he said. 'That means we can make faster computers, smaller and more energy-efficient chips. If we use nanowires and light, we can make three-dimensional scales. Fabrication of circuits that use the interconnection of light to transmit information between layers to create more compact and faster processors.' The research paper was published in the journal Nature Photonics. The researchers point out that the tiny lasers could also be used to make ultrasensitive optical sensors and near-field optical microscopes. The main breakthrough made by researchers at the Australian National University was to find a way to make tiny circuits using gallium arsenide. This circuit can work at room temperature. During the study, they deposited tiny gold particles on a surface, then heated the gold particles to 750 degrees Celsius in the presence of a gas containing gallium and arsenic.