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Unfortunately this isn't the world's first white laser. They've been around for a few years and they're sold by a few companies. http://www.leica-microsystems.

by zik 11y ago

Unfortunately this isn't the world's first white laser. They've been around for a few years and they're sold by a few companies. http://www.leica-microsystems.com/science-lab/white-light-laser/ http://www.leica-microsystems.com/science-lab/white-light-la... http://www.nktphotonics.com/product_cat/supercontinuum-lasers/?gclid=Cj0KEQjw8-GtBRCMl7m54PzgjNQBEiQAIZckv_HDk4dhHk8m949RhZJqmnWEKYm2sPBEc2Zh8H050QoaAszW8P8HAQ http://www.nktphotonics.com/product_cat/supercontinuum-laser... Apparently this discovery is actually the first semiconductor white light laser, which is pretty neat - but not what the headline claims.

Schwolop 11y ago
Unless I'm misunderstanding (which I could well be - this isn't my field!) those use several narrow-band coloured lasers and combine the output. This article is a single wide-band semiconductor.
- steve19 11y ago
  According to the article they generate three lasers from the same silicon. I think the benefits are size and/or simplicity, cost etc.
  - Schwolop 11y ago
    Ah ok, thanks for clarifying.
- fsilva 11y ago
  Actually supercontinuum lasers are not a recombination of different (incoherent) lasers but rather a 'processed' output from a single laser. You start with a high peak power laser pulse (e.g. a femtosecond mode locked oscillator) and excite a highly nonlinear process that generates new frequencies (e.g. using a special kind of optical fiber), and at the output you have a continuous broad spectrum. What happens in the fiber is actually similar to sea waves arriving on the beach - a very long and well beahaved wave steepens in the leading edge (which means new frequencies were generated) and eventually breaks/collapses into many small waves of much shorter period. The laser in this article is probably 100x or even more cheaper than a setup like this, but also does not have the full coherence supercontinuum sources have, so it will be used for different things. A picture of the output of a fully coherent white light laser spanning from the uv to ir: http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2011/09/sub-femtosecond-sculpted-light-transients.html http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2011/09/sub-femtosec... For more cool physics related to this read about frequency combs, which are (most of the time) frequency stabilized supercontinuum lasers.
brodo 11y ago
When I read the headline I expected a interesting anecdote from way back when it was invented. White lasers are pretty common at big raves and have been for at least 10 years.
Florin_Andrei 11y ago
And "white" here really means tri-color, not continuous spectrum - although with lasers that's probably to be expected.
- flyinghamster 11y ago
  Exactly. This will be great for displays and perhaps decorative lighting, but not for general illumination. I've always noticed how even a brightly lit monitor or TV screen doesn't illuminate things well, since it's just emitting three bright wavelengths and not a continuous spectrum.
  - karmakaze 11y ago
    Atari Star Wars, outdoors at night.

by zik 11y ago

Schwolop 11y ago

Unless I'm misunderstanding (which I could well be - this isn't my field!) those use several narrow-band coloured lasers and combine the output. This article is a single wide-band semiconductor.

steve19 11y ago
According to the article they generate three lasers from the same silicon. I think the benefits are size and/or simplicity, cost etc.
- Schwolop 11y ago
  Ah ok, thanks for clarifying.
fsilva 11y ago
Actually supercontinuum lasers are not a recombination of different (incoherent) lasers but rather a 'processed' output from a single laser. You start with a high peak power laser pulse (e.g. a femtosecond mode locked oscillator) and excite a highly nonlinear process that generates new frequencies (e.g. using a special kind of optical fiber), and at the output you have a continuous broad spectrum. What happens in the fiber is actually similar to sea waves arriving on the beach - a very long and well beahaved wave steepens in the leading edge (which means new frequencies were generated) and eventually breaks/collapses into many small waves of much shorter period. The laser in this article is probably 100x or even more cheaper than a setup like this, but also does not have the full coherence supercontinuum sources have, so it will be used for different things. A picture of the output of a fully coherent white light laser spanning from the uv to ir: http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2011/09/sub-femtosecond-sculpted-light-transients.html http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2011/09/sub-femtosec... For more cool physics related to this read about frequency combs, which are (most of the time) frequency stabilized supercontinuum lasers.

brodo 11y ago

When I read the headline I expected a interesting anecdote from way back when it was invented. White lasers are pretty common at big raves and have been for at least 10 years.

Florin_Andrei 11y ago

And "white" here really means tri-color, not continuous spectrum - although with lasers that's probably to be expected.

flyinghamster 11y ago
Exactly. This will be great for displays and perhaps decorative lighting, but not for general illumination. I've always noticed how even a brightly lit monitor or TV screen doesn't illuminate things well, since it's just emitting three bright wavelengths and not a continuous spectrum.
- karmakaze 11y ago
  Atari Star Wars, outdoors at night.