Researchers from Columbia and Singapore discovered that graphene has a remarkable optical nonlinear behavior - which could lead to ultra low power photonic integrated circuits. The researchers managed to use a single sheet of graphene and silicon to generate microwave photonic signals and perform parametric wavelength conversion at telecommunication wavelengths.

The researchers say that by optically driving the electronic and thermal response in the hybrid silicon-graphene chip they could generate a RF carrier on top of the transmitted laser beam and control its modulation with the laser intensity and color. The resonant quality of this cheap is 50 times lower than the best pure-silicon chip.