Indian-origin scientist makes breakthrough in laser technology

Your personal computer may soon become more compact and energy efficient as laser could replace the mesh of wires.

Scientists at University of Michigan, led by an Indian American Pallab Bhattacharya, have found a new and more efficient way to make a coherent laser-like beam.

The 'laser-like' beam is made up of precarious particles called polaritons that are part light and part matter.

This polariton laser is fuelled by electrical current and 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.

"This is big. For the past 50 years, we have relied on lasers to make coherent light and now we have something else based on a totally new principle," said Pallab Bhattacharya, professor of engineering at University of Michigan.

The 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 among several other things.

Today lasers are used in the fibre-optic communication that makes the Internet and cable television possible.

"The new prototype requires 1,000 times less electricity to operate than its conventional counterpart made of the same material," Bhattacharya concluded.