New Blue" Laser Technique Could Soon Be Commercial
yahoo.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new short wave blue" laser technique will soon be commercially usable and could revolutionize many electronic products, an expert said.
Writing in the journal Science, Gerhard Fasol of Eurotechnology Japan said the technique, first developed in Japan a year ago, is certain to have a large impact on the world as we know it."
The color of laser light corresponds to the size of its wavelength, from blues at the shorter end of the spectrum to red at the long end.
Different laser devices require different wavelengths. For example, compact disc players currently use infrared lasers but would work better with wavelengths as blue as possible, as would many other electronic products, Fasol said.
Light at the blue end of the spectrum should allow for denser data storage.
The new laser is a gallium nitride blue light semiconductor laser that operates at room temperature. Shuji Nakamura and colleagues at Nichia Chemical Industries showed they could make the laser last for up to 3,000 hours, with an estimated potential of 10,000 hours.
This now reaches the realm of commercial application, where lifetimes of 10,000 to 20,000 hours are required," Fasol, who has co-authored a book with Nakamura on the technology, wrote.
These devices have large ready-made commercial markets: displays, high-density data storage, laser printing, communications and lighting, just to name a few. There may well be several other applications that have not yet been imagined. "
Nakamura, who uses the chemical gallium nitride to make his laser, is ahead of big companies who are also trying to develop blue diodes, such as Sony, Toshiba and Xerox, Fasol said.
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