"CHIPS: Intel demos 40-Gbit/s silicon laser"

Intel and academic electrical engineers (EEs) recently demonstrated the world's first mode-locked silicon evanescent laser, a device capable of performing optical functions on CMOS chips. This is instead of translating from optical-to-electrical then back from electrical-to-optical, as is standard procedure for telecommunications applications of lasers today. The silicon laser emitted 40 billion pulses of light per second (40-Gbit/sec), and was built on the hybrid silicon/indium phosphide platform developed last year. The joint-development effort between Intel Corp. (Jerusalem) and the University of California (UCSB; Santa Barbara) produced a new silicon laser that delivered highly stable ultra-short pulses of laser light, which can be used in a variety of ways: for high-speed data transmissions at multiple wavelengths, for remote sensing using Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), for processor-to-processor optical communications on multi-core chips, and for highly accurate optical clocks.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201801706