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Home Science Physics

Smallest laser is so tiny you can’t see it with the naked eye

Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu
July 30, 2012
in Physics, Technology
Reading Time: 2 mins read
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Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with colleagues in Taiwan and China, have developed what’s considered to be the world’s smallest laser; a device so tiny, that it’s invisible to the naked eye. The laser is heralded as a breakthrough in the emerging photonic technology with applications from computing to medicine.

Specialists in photon-based technologies, like ultrafast computer chips, highly sensitive biosensors for detecting, treating and studying disease or the next-generation communication devices, will tell you at any time that the key to pushing the envelope forward in the field is based on two very important parameters: energy and size, and both need to be smaller. You can only get so low until you hit a brick wall, though, or what’s known for physicists as the three-dimensional optical diffraction limit.

Illustration of the nanoscale semiconductor structure used for demonstrating the ultralow-threshold nanolaser. A single nanorod is placed on a thin silver film (28 nm thick). The resonant electromagnetic field is concentrated at the 5-nm-thick silicon dioxide gap layer sandwiched by the semiconductor nanorod and the atomically smooth silver film.
Illustration of the nanoscale semiconductor structure used for demonstrating the ultralow-threshold nanolaser. A single nanorod is placed on a thin silver film (28 nm thick). The resonant electromagnetic field is concentrated at the 5-nm-thick silicon dioxide gap layer sandwiched by the semiconductor nanorod and the atomically smooth silver film.

“We have developed a nanolaser device that operates well below the 3-D diffraction limit,” said Chih-Kang “Ken” Shih, professor of physics at The University of Texas at Austin. “We believe our research could have a large impact on nanoscale technologies.”

In their paper recently published in the journal Science, Shih and colleagues report on the first operation of a continuous-wave, low-threshold laser below the 3-D diffraction limit. When fired, the nanolaser emits a green light. The device is made of a gallium nitride nano-rod , partially filled with indium gallium nitride – both are semiconductor alloys used commonly in LEDs.

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The nanorod is the key to the physicists’ success, a material that the Shih lab has been perfecting for more than 15 years. The nanorod is placed on top of a thin insulating layer of silicon that in turn covers a layer of silver film that is smooth at the atomic level. “Atomically smooth plasmonic structures are highly desirable building blocks for applications with low loss of data,” said Shih.

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“Size mismatches between electronics and photonics have been a huge barrier to realize on-chip optical communications and computing systems,” said Shangjr Gwo, professor at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and a former doctoral student of Shih’s.

The researchers hope this impediment will finally be jumped once “on-chip” communication systems (chips where all processes are contained on the chip) are developed, with the help of the knowledge gained from developing the world’s tiniest laser.

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Tags: diffractionlaseropticsphotons
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Tibi Puiu

Tibi Puiu

Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science. He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines.

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