A new way to make laser-like beams using 250x less power

University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated what’s believed to be the first practical polariton laser, which makes light beams in a more efficient way than conventional lasers. To accomplish this, they devised an innovative design that involved moving the required mirrors from the top and bottom of the device to the sides. The mirrors are represented by the gray bars. The yellow is the electrode through which the researchers stimulate the laser. The purple is the gallium nitride semiconductor that is able to maintain ideal conditions for polaritons to form and release light. Image credit: Thomas Frost

The beam they demonstrated was ultraviolet and very low power — less than a millionth of a watt. For context, the laser in a CD player is about one-thousandth of a watt.

With precarious particles called polaritons that straddle the worlds of light and matter, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a new, practical and potentially more efficient way to make a coherent laser-like beam.

They have made what’s believed to be the first polariton laser that is fueled by electrical current as opposed to light, and also works at room temperature, rather than way below zero.

Those attributes make the device the most real-world ready of the handful of polariton lasers ever developed. It represents a milestone like none the field has seen since the invention of the most common type of laser – the semiconductor diode – in the early 1960s, the researchers say. While the first lasers were made in the 1950s, it wasn’t until the semiconductor version, fueled by electricity rather than light, that the technology took off.

This work could advance efforts to put lasers on computer circuits to replace wire connections, leading to smaller and more powerful electronics. It may also have applications in medical devices and treatments and more.

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