Search Perform an advanced search query SOFTPEDIA
 
SOFTPEDIA
Updated one minute ago
HomeSubmit a program for being reviewedAdvertise on our websiteGet help on surfing our websitesSend us your feedbackGet information about our XML/RSS backend and how to use itBrowse the news archiveVisit our discussion forumVizitati forumul in limba romana



KLIP
  1. HOME
  2. SCIENCE
  3. TECHNOLOGY
  4. WEBMASTER
  5. SECURITY
  6. MICROSOFT
  7. LINUX
  8. APPLE
  9. GAMES
  10. TELECOMS
  11. REVIEWS
  12. LIFE & STYLE
  13. EDITORIALS
  14. INTERVIEWS
  15. RSS
Welcome!
Hello, Guest

Login if you have a Softpedia.com account.

Otherwise, register for one.

NANO-BIOTECHNOLOGY

Rainbow Colored Lasers

- Will red lasers be replaced?

By: Lucian Dorneanu, Science Editor

We're all used to the red laser, mostly from electronic appliances like DVD players and bar-code scanners, or from movies, where there's always a good guy breaking through a network of red lasers with a can of spray or smoke.

By using a new type of semiconductor, researchers aim to produce more colorful laser light much easier and cheaper
than before. The new materials are engineered crystalline semiconductor specks, which brings the tiny flakes, called nanocrystals, a crucial step closer to altering a laser's color just by changing the size of the crystal, which could lead to more powerful applications for detecting chemicals or sending information via flickers of light.

A specific laser color depends on the material used to emit light, as each semiconductor offers the electrons two possible energy states. The band gap, meaning the difference between the two states, determines the color of the emitted light.

"In nanocrystals, the gap changes with their size—the smaller the size, the larger the gap," says physicist Victor Klimov of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The team of scientists led by Klimov managed to get the nanocrystal's electrons to cooperate by splitting the nanocrystal into a cadmium sulfide core and a zinc selenide shell. The core trapped excited electrons for two nanoseconds, which is 50 times longer than normal and long enough to be hit by an outside photon.

By not needing their own superpowerful laser to get nanocrystals going, such two-layer crystals are long lasting and efficient enough to be melded with electronics, which could lead to a complete array of applications, cheaper, more efficient and versatile compared with present lasers.

Chemical sensors or optical communications devices capable of rapidly switching between laser colors are a good example of what this new technology could bring to the commercial devices.

MORE RELATED ARTICLES: The Best Investment – Space Technology Microscopic Lifeforms Could Slowly Eat Away the Internation Space Station Wanted: Fugitive Black Holes Escaped from Home Galaxies Gamma-Ray Bursts More Active Than Thought The Death of Cosmology Predicted Mysterious Observations of Merging Stars NASA Can Only Anticipate 5% of Potential Asteroid Impacts on Earth How Much Does a Black Hole Weigh? Cassini Images of Sea and Islands on Saturn's Moon, Titan Catching Neutrinos in a Mile-Thick Ice Cube in Antarctica
 
Comments | Link here | Subscribe
Print | Send to friend
Today's News | Yesterday's News

Search:


26th May 2007, 12:47 GMT | Copyright (c) 2007 Softpedia | Contact:
Read by 1,235 user(s) | Rating: | 5 vote(s) so far | Cast your vote:
Rainbow Colored Lasers - USER OPINIONS




We are sorry, there are no opinions available for this article.






SHARE YOUR OPINION ABOUT Rainbow Colored Lasers

Since you are not logged on, your comments will have to be approved before being displayed.
Click here to login, or register.
Your Name:
Your Email:
Type in the result:
Your Opinion:
 


DO YOU WANT TO CONTACT US?  

If you have some comments or you want to send us some information you can send us an email directly to .
You can use the form below for the same purpose.
Your full name: (at least 3 characters)
Your email address: (at least 5 characters)
Message subject: (at least 5 characters)
Message text:
(at least 10 characters)
Type in the result:
 
 



© 2001 - 2008 Softpedia. All rights reserved.
Softpedia™ and Softpedia™ logo are registered trademarks of SoftNews NET SRL.
Copyright Information | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact Softpedia | Update your software | Archive