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From reading DVDs to purifying drinking water, semiconductor lasers have found a remarkable array of uses in modern technology. Now, they could find even wider application thanks to researchers in the US who have developed a new type of device that could mean smaller, more powerful and cheaper ultraviolet lasers. The technology could lead to a CD that could store up to six hours of music, and might even provide a new way of probing single biological cells.
The amount of information stored on a CD depends on how finely the tracks are cut. But the tracks on a CD cannot be so fine that a laser cannot read them. This minimum size is called the diffraction limit and is about half the wavelength of the laser light.
Associate Creative Director at bloomfield knoble
Associate Creative Director at bloomfield knoble