Graphene could yield cheaper optical chips
Graphene — which consists of atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms arranged hexagonally — is the new wonder material: Flexible, lightweight and incredibly conductive electrically, it’s also the strongest material known to man.In the latest issue of Nature Photonics, researchers at MIT, Columbia University and IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center describe a promising new application of graphene, in the photodetectors that would convert optical signals to electrical signals in integrated optoelectronic computer chips. Using light rather than electricity to move data both within and between computer chips could drastically reduce their power consumption and heat production, problems that loom ever larger as chips’ computational capacity increases.Optoelectronic devices built from graphene could be much simpler in design than those made from other materials. If a method for efficiently depositing layers of graphene — a major area of research in materials science — can be found, it could ultimately lead to optoelectronic...