Researchers guide light on nanoscale

Berkeley, CA, September 2, 2004-- Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the University of California at Berkeley have demonstrated that semiconductor nanoribbons, single crystals measuring tens of hundreds of microns in length, but only a few hundred or less nanometers in width and thickness, can serve as optical waveguides.

"Not only have we shown that semiconductor nanoribbons can be used as low-loss and highly flexible, optical waveguides, we've also shown that they have the potential to be integrated within other active optical components to make photonic circuits," said Peidong Yang, a chemist with the LBNL Materials Sciences Division, and a professor with UC Berkeley's Chemistry Department, who led the research.

The research results of Yang and his team were reported in the August 27, 2004 issue of the journal Science. Co-authoring the paper along with Yang were Matt Law, Donald Sirbuly, Justin Johnson, Josh Goldberger and Richard Saykally, all of whom are affiliated with either Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, or both.