In recent years, traditional complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) scaling techniques have begun to reach the technological limits of available materials. A revolution in block-to-block communication is necessary to meet the ever-growing demand for microprocessor computational power. On-chip optical communication has been designated as a promising solution to circumvent the CMOS scaling bottlenecks: second-order phenomenon, which causes significant interconnect delays, and the nonscalability of the thermal voltage, which becomes significant in submicron CMOS technology. The metal oxide semiconductor quantum well transistor, a silicon-on-insulator metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor device, with a channel thickness reduced to the single nanometer scale is examined. The nanometric gate oxide, silicon, and buried oxide heterostructure in the channel forms a quantum potential well, creating discrete sub-bands within the silicon layer. Inter-sub-band-transitions within the quantum well may allow for radiative recombination in indirect band gap materials.