Chiral silicon could be used in light-based computing
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029066
Science : Some schemes for photonic computing use light’s polarization to store and transfer data. But if the data are to be transferred to a regular computer, a silicon-based means of measuring spin is needed, which so far has proved elusive to realize. Now Ritesh Agarwal of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues have discovered that by altering the structure of a silicon crystal, the material is no longer indistinguishable from its mirror image . That property allows silicon to be used to detect both polarization and electron spin because of the way light and electrons interact with the crystal. The availability of silicon detectors will significantly increase the rate at which photonic computing can transmit data.
