Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > News laser design offers more inexpensive multi-color output: Design can control color, intensity of light by varying cavity architecture

Photo courtesy of John Krzesinski, 2011, Flickr
Photo courtesy of John Krzesinski, 2011, Flickr

Abstract:
From checkout counters at supermarkets to light shows at concerts, lasers are everywhere, and they're a much more efficient light source than incandescent bulbs. But they're not cheap to produce.

News laser design offers more inexpensive multi-color output: Design can control color, intensity of light by varying cavity architecture

Evanston, IL | Posted on July 11th, 2017

A new Northwestern University study has engineered a more cost-effective laser design that outputs multi-color lasing and offers a step forward in chip-based lasers and miniaturization. The findings could allow encrypted, encoded, redundant and faster information flow in optical fibers, as well as multi-color medical imaging of diseased tissue in real time.

The study was published July 10 in Nature Nanotechnology. "In our work, we demonstrated that multi-modal lasing with control over the different colors can be achieved in a single device," said senior author Teri W. Odom, a Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. "Compared to traditional lasers, our work is unprecedented for its stable multi-modal nanoscale lasing and our ability to achieve detailed and fine control over the lasing beams."

This work offers new insights into the design and mechanism of multi-modal nanoscale lasing based on structural engineering and manipulating the optical band structures of nanoparticle superlattices. Using this technology, the researchers can control the color and intensity of the light by simply varying its cavity architecture. Nanoparticle superlattices -- finite-arrays of metal nanoparticles grouped into microscale arrays -- integrated with liquid gain offer a platform to access different colors with tunable intensities depending simply on the geometric parameters of the lattice.

This is in contrast to current lasers that bounce light between two mirrors and are optimized through a lot of care and engineering to ensure that only one color -- or wavelength -- is emitted. Currently in the industry, multi-color lasing output is only possible by putting together many single-color lasers. This new work provides a strategy to eliminate costly fabrication processes and to directly produce multiple, stable lasing peaks from a single device. "In humans, our perception of the world would be limited if we only 'saw' in a single color," Odom said. "Multiple colors are essential for us to receive and process information at the same time, and in the same way, multi-color lasers have the potential for tremendous benefits in daily life."

In the future, Odom said she and her team are interested in designing white nanolasers by covering blue, green and red wavelengths simultaneously. Their approach should allow them to change the "whiteness" by controlling the relative intensity of the blue, green, red channels. Additionally, this new work offers possibilities for ultra-sensitive sensing in chemical processes (different molecules can be monitored simultaneously) and in-situ cellular imaging at multiple colors (different dye labels would be excited by different laser colors and different biological processes can be correlated).

###

The study is titled "Band-edge engineering for controlled multi-modal nanolasing in plasmonic superlattices." George Schatz, professor of chemistry at Weinberg, and Dr. Richard Schaller, assistant professor of chemistry at Weinberg and a nanoscale materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, are co-corresponding authors, and Danqing Wang, an applied physics graduate student, is first author.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant numbers DMR-1608258 and DMR-1306514.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not

####

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Kristin Samuelson

847-491-4888

Copyright © Northwestern University

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related News Press

News and information

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Laboratories

A battery’s hopping ions remember where they’ve been: Seen in atomic detail, the seemingly smooth flow of ions through a battery’s electrolyte is surprisingly complicated February 16th, 2024

NRL discovers two-dimensional waveguides February 16th, 2024

Catalytic combo converts CO2 to solid carbon nanofibers: Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material January 12th, 2024

Three-pronged approach discerns qualities of quantum spin liquids November 17th, 2023

Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024

Discoveries

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Announcements

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Photonics/Optics/Lasers

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024

HKUST researchers develop new integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V and silicon February 16th, 2024

A battery’s hopping ions remember where they’ve been: Seen in atomic detail, the seemingly smooth flow of ions through a battery’s electrolyte is surprisingly complicated February 16th, 2024

Research partnerships

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

'Sudden death' of quantum fluctuations defies current theories of superconductivity: Study challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions January 12th, 2024

Development of zinc oxide nanopagoda array photoelectrode: photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production January 12th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project