Intel Labs researchers say they have achieved an important new step in developing silicon photonics (transmitting data via light): a silicon-based avalanche photodetector, or APD, that detects and amplifies light signals.

An avalanche photodetector is a sensor that both detects light pulses and amplifies them as light is directed into the silicon. Unlike other photodetectors that absorb one photon pulse and produce one electron, an APD can absorb and then amplify the light pulse and produce tens or hundreds of electrical signals.