Scientists find novel way to create nanowire lasers

Light can carry far more data, far more rapidly than standard electronics. A single fibre in a fibre-optic cable, measuring less than a hair's width in diameter, can carry tens of thousands of telephone conversations at once.

"The new methond to produce miniaturising lasers to the nanoscale could further revolutionise computing by bringing light-speed data transmission to the devices," said Peidong Yang, chemist in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

More standard techniques that produce nanowires can require expensive equipment and exotic conditions, such as high temperatures, and can suffer from other shortcomings.

""The whole purpose of developing nano-sized lasers is to interface photonic (light-based) devices with electronic devices seamlessly," Yang explained in a paper appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to him, these nanowires may be the first to emit laser light using a totally inorganic (not containing carbon) blend of materials.

Researchers demonstrated that the nanowire lasers could be tuned to a range of light including visible green and blue wavelengths.

"This field is rapidly evolving. We just jumped into this field only 12 months ago, and these lasers are already amazing, bright emitters. It's just so exciting," Yand added.