 |
 |
Breakthrough in Lasers, With Many Potential New Uses July 28, 2000 Researchers at the Bell Laboratories of Lucent Technologies have created the first solid laser from organic materials that is electrically powered, a breakthrough that they and other researchers predict will lead to a wide range of new uses for laser light in communications and information storage. The Bell Labs results, reported yesterday in the journal Science, were achieved with thin disks of a crystallized benzene-based material called tetracene. But the researchers said it should eventually be possible to manufacture such lasers in thin films that could be incorporated in plastic sheets, allowing them to be inexpensively produced in a wide variety of flexible shapes. Such devices, which have been dubbed "plastic lasers," are eventually likely to be cheaper than today's metal solid-state lasers. They are also likely to be more versatile, because organic substances can be relatively easily manipulated to emit light ranging from ultraviolet to infrared, according to Bertram Batlogg, the director of solid-state physics research for Bell Labs. Most solid-state lasers are limited to the red and infrared portions of the spectrum. Lasers that emit light at the shorter wavelengths toward the ultraviolet end of the spectrum could lead to devices that transmit information more rapidly and store it more compactly. The lasers might also be used in medicine, chemical analysis and other areas where today's lasers are ineffective. . Bell Labs' research also suggests that organic lasers might require far less energy than the metal semiconductor lasers used today in consumer and commercial devices and in telecommunications. The work reported in Science involved energy requirements comparable to those of today's solid-state lasers, but at a recent conference, Mr. Batlogg told researchers that lasing had been achieved with far lower energy inputs. A wide variety of gases, liquids and solids can be pumped with energy under conditions that lead them to emit laser light, which consists of a beam or pulses that are all the same wavelength and in which all of the waves travel in synchronized peaks and troughs. Such "coherent" light is much more intense and focused than normal light. Bell Labs' organic laser is a milestone that some doubted would ever be achieved. It was not until 1996, long after metal-based lasers were in wide use, that researchers were even able to confirm that it was possible for solid organic materials to be stimulated enough to emit laser light. But doing so required pumping huge amounts of energy from other lasers into the test materials, which tended to overheat and break down quickly. For all the excitement, commercialization of the discovery is likely to take many years. By BARNABY J. FEDER Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company "http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/28laser.html" janet paterson 53 now / 41 dx pd / 37 onset pd / 44 dx cd / 43 onset cd tel: 613 256 8340 url: "http://www.geocities.com/janet313/" email: "[log in to unmask]" smail: PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada