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Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs, pronounced vixels) are high-power workhorses with applications from laser printing to LIDAR sensing. But their geometry, which consists of large alternating layers, presents fabrication difficulties, limiting the devices' output colors.
In new research, scientists built An electrically pumped surface-emitting semiconductor green laser.
The realization of a low-threshold, high-efficiency, all-epitaxial surface-emitting green laser diode will enable many exciting applications including projection displays such as pico projectors, plastic optical fiber communication, wireless communication, optical storage, smart lighting, and biosensors.
Their configuration, dubbed nanocrystal surface-emitting laser (NCSEL), divides the surface area into small nanocrystals that allow more flexible choice of individual layers. Mismatch between physical properties of large layers can easily cause failure where smaller areas are immune. According to the authors:
This work demonstrates a viable approach to realizing high-performance surface-emitting laser diodes from the deep UV to the deep visible (~210 to 600 nm) that were previously difficult to achieve.
Beautiful beams of light
coherent in frequency and phase.
The public expected your biggest impact
to be Star Wars-like Death Rays.Instead you're in our everyday lives
from bar codes to pointers to DVD drives
They say in Science is your biggest contribution
shining a light on stars and molecular distributions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday January 07 2020, @01:43PM (3 children)
Apparently, the quality and power of lasers that "ordinary" people can get their hands on has skyrocketed, even in the past 5 years or so. The used market is your friend. Don't shoot your eye out.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Tuesday January 07 2020, @01:57PM (2 children)
Back in the 70's, that was rumored to be the most powerful laser in the Netherlands. Not safe to look at. The technicians used special goggles that filtered out the laser's frequency. One mentioned that his goggles once started melting when he had his head in the wrong place by accident. The filter meant he had not seen the beam itself. But the filter had protected his eyes.
-- hendrik
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 07 2020, @03:25PM
A colleague was working on a pulsed research laser a couple of decades ago and put his arm in the beam by accident. He has a nice series of scars all down his arm - knowing the pulse frequency one can calculate the speed with which he retracted his arm...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Tuesday January 07 2020, @07:24PM
Looks like the beginning of the post was deleted by accident. Let me provide the missing context.
I was talking about an argon laser at the mathematical centre in Amsterdam. Its casing was sintered beryllium. It was used for projecting on a ground-glass screen, a photochromic film, and regular photographic film. We used it for graphics and for typesetting.