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Swiss scientists shrink super laser on a small chip in a world-first | Miniaturized lasers are more cost effective to produce, portable and could power increasing number of applications in the future.
Swiss researchers used state of the art fabrication facilities to miniaturize erbium lasers on to a silicon chip without impacting performance.
Image credit: Yang Liu (EPFL) The laser beam’s narrowness allows it to produce steady light, which is necessary for applications ranging from LiDAR to sensing, making gyroscopes, and performing metrology using optical frequency. “We were able to design the laser cavity to be meter-scale in length despite the compact chip size, thanks to the integration of these microring resonators that effectively extend the optical path without physically enlarging the device,” said Yang Liu, a doctoral researcher at EPFL who was also involved with the work. Miniaturizing such erbium lasers into chip-scale devices is also beneficial since it reduces costs and makes them easier to integrate into applications such as telecommunications, medical diagnostics, and consumer electronics, a press release added.
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