The United States is developing a laser the size of a matchbox.
Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara have developed a compact, lightweight and inexpensive laser, barely the size of a box of matches, but capable of competing with “traditional” lasers. This development could significantly democratize and expand research in the quantum field.
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The UC Santa Barbara team, led by Andrei Isichenko, created this 780 nm laser device that integrates a Fabry-Perot laser diode on a compact silicon nitride chip. Through the use of rubidium atoms and a stable frequency absorption process, this laser exhibits remarkable precision and stability, making it ideal for ultra-cold and high-precision experiments.
Features and performance of the mini laser
Unlike “traditional” lasers which require bulky components to eliminate noise and produce a beam of a single frequency, this new laser uses a simplified configuration which allows it to generate coherent light, suppress noise and guarantee a pure beam at a single frequency. The study authors report that this 780 nm hybrid integrated laser is limited by thermorefractive noise, with a baseline line width of 0.74 Hz and an integral line width of 864 Hz.
Potential laser applications
This narrow linewidth laser is essential for applications such as atomic clocks, sensors and quantum experiments, where pure, stable and precise light is crucial. The portability and low production cost of this laser (using a $50 diode) make it suitable for use not only in the laboratory but also in the field, including in harsh environments such as space.
A significant impact expected
Daniel Blumenthal, a professor at UC Santa Barbara and lead author of the study, envisions revolutionary uses for this laser, including in gravitational mapping of Earth and its surroundings by satellite. This technology could measure variations such as sea level rise, changes in sea ice and even detect earthquakes through monitoring gravitational fields.
Future outlook
With its practical design, reduced power consumption and affordable cost, this new laser device promises not only to advance research in quantum physics but also to significantly expand its accessibility to laboratories around the world, thus facilitating multitude of new scientific discoveries.
This article explores the major innovation achieved by UC Santa Barbara researchers with the development of a laser the size of a matchbox. Capable of performance comparable to that of much larger benchtop lasers, this new laser opens exciting prospects for quantum research, with applications ranging from fundamental physics to environmental and space measurements.
Visual created using Canva for representation purposes.
Source : https://news.ucsb.edu/2024/021708/bringing-power-tabletop-precision-lasers-quantum-science-chip-scale
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