Tiny lasers light up future electronics

Faster, smaller electronics are one step closer with researchers from The Australian National University successfully making the first room temperature lasers from gallium arsenide nanowires.

"The wires and lasers will lead to much faster, much lighter computers because light travels faster than electrons, allowing us to process data much faster," explains Mr Dhruv Saxena from the Research School of Physics & Engineering.

"The lasers in use at the moment often require a lot of processing steps to produce a nice cavity and mirrors in order to emit laser light," explains Saxena, who went on to explain these older lasers also are much bulkier.

Saxena authored a paper in Nature Photonics explaining how to make smaller lasers using gallium arsenide nanowires – solid wires only several billionths of a metre in diameter.