and Nanolasers
a paper by:
RAdm. RM Wey & FComm. DL Wey
COSR: SFS-SFC DCOSR: SFS-SFC
W
ith the ever increasing demand for better, faster, lighter and more efficient devices, the need to make things ever smaller becomes a ‘quantum’ thing. Dimensions of the various internal parts have reached nanometer proportions.At these dimensions[less than one hundredth the width of a human hair]the use of nanolasers would play a marked role in the development of optical computers, fiber optic communication, etc.
The quintessential drawback to semiconductor lasers is their enormous squandering of energy, consuming more than they produce in operation. In order to overcome this, research is being conducted into devices which would ‘draft’ surrounding photons into lasing duty. By this we mean that the input energy is more effectively used by the laser, thereby making its use in everyday devices more practical.
With these devices, scientists have been able to create quantum wires and dots[which are used to confine electrons to one and zero dimensions]thus producing a laser that can be varied by wavelength as needs dictate and not as nature would.
The variations of these lasers are many, the microdisk laser, mirroring laser, just to name a couple; Yet these devices by and in themselves enable us to create
ever smaller circuitry, providing us with an infinite array of possibilities for the twenty first century.
