Engineers and physicists have discovered a property of siliconthat could help develop faster computers.
Currently, copper wires carry information to a computer, and the process slows down as the wires heat up.
“Photonic” and “spintronic” computingis the principle of transferring information from light or the spin of electrons.
This new capability means that silicon-based light detectors detect spin, so that more information can be transferred.
Spin is a property of subatomic particles that affects the arrangement of electrons and nuclei in atoms and molecules. This property is usually observed in materials containing heavy elements, which are difficult to incorporate into existing computer systems that are mostly made of silicon.
Silicon is a highly symmetrical crystal, but by changing its geometry, the team was able to impart “chiral” properties to it. An object is considered chiral if its mirror image cannot be superimposed on the original.
This means that the chirality of silicon-based detectors is able to detect the spin of electrons and light, and therefore allows for the transmission of more information.
"Computers powered entirely by light are a distant dream, but some copper interconnect lines could be replaced by devices that detect light," Professor Ritesh Agarwal, who led the study at the University of Pennsylvania, told the BBC
“This project is only about five years away from now. The technology already exists, but this could add more functionality.”
The discovery was made by accident while investigating heavier materials.
As with the discovery of chirality in silicon, this study has wider implications for materials science.
“It’s the same silicon, all we did was cut it in a specific direction,” explained Professor Ritesh Agarwal. This is a step forward for engineering to create new, useful properties simply by changing the geometry of the material.
