Hybridising silicon devices with carbon nanotubes

By using carbon nanotubes (CNT) in the development of hybrid silicon-based devices, EU-funded researchers have paved the way for the development of next generation CNT photonics.

Silicon has positioned itself as the material of choice for a range of photonic applications, including DataCom and sensing. As a result, today you can find numerous photonic devices capable of emitting, propagating, modulating and detecting light at the silicon chip-scale. Yet even with this advancement, there remains the challenge of integrating all the photonic building blocks onto the same circuit. This is because doing so requires integrating a range of different materials onto silicon. Although technically possible, the process is not cost-effective, thus limiting the use of silicon photonics for a broad range of applications.

Further details: Hybridising silicon devices with carbon nanotubes