Silicon is the most important material for electronic chips and processors. Yet it has a big drawback: being a so-called indirect semiconductor, it hardly emits any light. Therefore worldwide efforts in the labs of the microelectronics industry are aimed towards developing more efficient light sources based on silicon. Physicists at the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD) now managed to make silicon shine red and blue in an alternating fashion. This two-color light source could help to produce cheap and compact biosensors. Recently a patent was filed related to this discovery.
Switchable Two-Color Light Source On A Silicon Chip – [Link]