The various routes towards an injection silicon laser

Silicon the material per excellence for electronics is not used for sourcing light due to the lack of efficient light emitters and lasers. In this talk, I will discuss the physical reasons why silicon is not a laser material and some approaches to make it lasing. I will start with bulk silicon, then I will discuss silicon nanocrystals and Er³⁺ coupled silicon nanocrystals where significant advances have been done in the past and can be expected in the near future. I will conclude with an optimistic note on silicon lasing. A summary of this talk can be found in L. Pavesi "Routes towards a silicon-based laser" Materials Today 8(1) (January 2005) pag. 18-25.