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Wednesday, 29th July 2009 (1088 views)

Gold nanoparticles have been employed by an international team of scientists to 'shrink' laser beams beyond previous limits, which could lead to faster computers and internet access.

The findings of the researchers from Arizona State University (ASU) and the Technical University of Eindhoven were recently published in the science and engineering journal Optics Express, Nanowerk reports.

Engineers want to produce nanoscale lasers that can be integrated with small electronic components as the beams speed up communications between different parts of a computer.

The size of a laser in any one dimension was previously thought to be restricted to around one-half of the beam's wavelength - the so-called diffraction limit.

However, the Arizona and Eindhoven team got around this limit using a combination of semiconductors and precious metals like gold.

ASU's Professor Cun-Zheng Ning said: "It turns out that the electrons excited in metals can help you confine a light in a laser to sizes smaller than that required by the diffraction limit."

He added that the team was eventually able to shrink a laser to around one-quarter of its wavelength.

Professor Ning previously worked as senior research scientist at Nasa's Ames Research Center.

 

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