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Coward, Anonymous writes:

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.

ODE TO THE LASER:

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.

Original Submission