Cooler Silicon Lasers Via Energy Harvesting

Light Licker writes "UCLA researchers have developed a way to cut power use and heat output from a silicon laser used for optoelectronics. Both have been problems because silicon absorbs too much light — producing high-energy free electrons that make heat. One of Intel's best silicon lasers produced 125 times more heat than usable light. The UCLA team added a diode to their laser which can harvest free electrons and use them to help power the circuit — simultaneously cutting heat output and power use."

does this mean

[zappepcs]

that the newest batch of CD players won't be hot enough to reveal the secret disc art on NIN's new CD?

Re:Not expected?

[kestasjk]

Maybe he didn't expect that the diode would create the electric field, maybe it's hard to put a diode right next to the laser, or maybe he didn't think the free electrons would travel away so easily.

To me it sounds exactly like how photovoltaic cells work; a light beam gives an electron enough energy to dislodge it, and a diode forces the electron to jump through a few hoops to get back to where it started. At face value it's too obvious to not have been thought of before, so you can bet there's something NewScientist aren't covering well.