In the last half-century, laser technology has grown into a multi-billion-dollar global industry and has been used in everything from optical-disk drives and barcode scanners to surgical and welding equipment.
Not to mention those laser pointers that entertain and confound your cat.
Now, lasers are poised to take another step forward: Researchers at Case Western Reserve University, in collaboration with partners around the world, have been able to control the direction of a laser's output beam by applying external voltage.
It is a historic first among scientists who have been experimenting with what they call "random lasers" over the last 15 years or so.
"There's still a lot of work to do, but this is a clear first proof of a transistor random laser, where the laser emission can be routed and steered by applying an external voltage," said Giuseppe Strangi, professor and Ohio Research Scholar in Surfaces of Advanced Materials at Case Western Reserve University.
Strangi, who led the research, 0and his collaborators recently outlined their findings in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications. The project, funded by the National Academy of Sciences of Finland, was aimed at overcoming certain physical limitations intrinsic to that second generations of lasers.
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