Strange bedfellows [semiconductor technology]

Silicon is the stuff of memories and microprocessors. III-V semiconductors-compounds made of elements inhabiting the third and fifth columns of the periodic table, like gallium arsenide-are the stuff of high-frequency communications chips, LEDs, and solid-state lasers. But these two types of materials have never been able to live together on the same chip. Now, researchers in Europe have found that at the nanometer scale, they can get along just fine. The researchers grew indium phosphide and gallium phosphide nanowires on a silicon substrate, clearing the path for the manufacture of cheaper high frequency chips and silicon devices embedding LEDs and lasers.