ABSTRACT
Silicon photonics is an emerging field of research and technology;
in such a scenario, nano-silicon can play a fundamental role. In
this chapter the main building blocks constituting silicon photonics
(waveguides, modulators, sources, and detectors) are reviewed and
their counterpart of using Si nanocrystals is critically discussed.
In particular, the nonlinear effects of Si nanocrystals to get fast
all-optical switches are presented alongside the recent research
efforts on obtaining optical amplification at 1550 nm by using the
sensitizing properties of Si nanocrystals to Er ions.
