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Portfolio company Chromosol, transforming the future of silicon photonics through the development and commercialisation of a new range of laser materials, has been announced as the winner of the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Enabling Technologies award. The company has a novel approach to on-silicon light generation with a material which can be deposited directly and used in a range of platforms including photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Full integration of electrical and optical systems, both in chips and wider computing architectures, is seen as the ‘holy grail’ of silicon photonics and will allow for greater data transmission rates and lower power consumption, both of which are key to maintaining Moore’s law and ensuring the exponential growth of computing power. 

William Gillin, Chromosol Ltd, winner of the Enabling Technologies category, said: “Our work is at the interface of physics, engineering and chemistry, and this award shows how important the latter is to developing our technology. The recognition of the Royal Society of Chemistry will help us promote to the chemistry industry just how vital this work is in support of other areas.”

Lee Thornton, Investment Director, IP Group, said: “Chromosol is offering a world-leading solution to a problem which has been plaguing the wider industry for years, how to fully integrate electrical and optical signals on a chip which will allow for the next generation of high data rate and low power computing systems. We are extremely pleased the Royal Society of Chemistry has recognised both the game-changing nature of this technology and the value of the commercial proposition, and we look forward to continuing to grow the Chromosol technology until it reaches its full potential.”

Please click here for the Royal Society of Chemistry announcement.

Please contact [email protected] for more information. 

About Chromosol

Chromosol is a spin-out from Queen Mary University of London, backed by funding from IP Group, commercialising an alternative approach to telecoms wavelength light generation in the field of silicon photonics and which is based on the use of two novel chemical compounds, one is a fully halogenated ligand which is used to encapsulate a lanthanide ion. These ions have excellent light emission properties and are widely used in laser applications. The second material is a fully halogenated chromophore (a light absorbing molecule) which very efficiently absorbs visible light and passes the energy to the lanthanide ion. Together they provide an ultra-efficient optical amplification system. Silicon Photonics is the future of high speed data networks. Although virtually all long distance data transfer is sent at the speed of light down optical fibres, the technology required to do this is too expensive for many shorter distance links. As such datacentres, which currently consume about 3% of the world’s electricity generation and are responsible for around 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions, are forced to rely on electrical connections for much short range data transfer, an energy intensive process which also provides a bottleneck in the data transfer rate. Chromosol offers a solution to these problems. 

About the Royal Society of Chemistry

We are an international organisation connecting chemical scientists with each other, with other scientists, and with society as a whole. Founded in 1841 and based in London, UK, we have an international membership of over 50,000. We use the surplus from our global publishing and knowledge business to give thousands of chemical scientists the support and resources required to make vital advances in chemical knowledge. We develop, recognise and celebrate professional capabilities, and we bring people together to spark new ideas and new partnerships. We support teachers to inspire future generations of scientists, and we speak up to influence the people making decisions that affect us all. We are a catalyst for the chemistry that enriches our world.