Scientists Announce Breakthrough in Silicon Photonics Devices

www.physorg.com:

"In a study to be presented today at the 2006 International Optical Amplifiers and Applications Conference in Vancouver, Canada, UCLA Engineering researchers report that not only can optical amplification in silicon be achieved with zero power consumption, but power can now be generated in the process. "

Somehow this sounds very important. I can't quite figure it out. Optical amplification without any power consumption? The big deal sounds like it's because the lack of power means that extra power need not be applied, which keeps the heat down, heat being the big bottleneck in the newest chips. But doing anything useful without power consumption sounds pretty impressive to me. But what do I know?

On the other hand, a lens performes optical amplification without any power consumption, if you exclude the light that's absorbed by the lens. Ok, I'm clueless.