China: scientists discover how to generate a laser effect that can revolutionize communication and telephony
According to a South China Morning Post article published Friday, Chinese scientists have devised a new method to generate laser-like light that could significantly improve the communication speed of everyday electronics.
The new device that makes this light possible is known as a free-electron laser and was developed by scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The technology is not entirely new. Lasers of this type have existed in the past, but they were bulky, high-power devices housed in large and expensive facilities which made them impractical for everyday use or mass applications.
The new device, on the other hand, uses only a thin piece of wire approximately 8 cm in length to emit laser-like light in a wide range of wavelengths for a wide variety of applications. Typical laser light is normally limited in these areas.
Research co-author Ye Tian told the Shanghai Observer that his invention achieved this breakthrough by finding a way to synchronize electrons "like a team of honor guards" to generate more power.
To create lasers, the electrons in the atoms of optical materials such as glass, crystal, or gas must absorb energy in the form of light or electricity.
To explain what happens from the point of view of physics we have to explain, in a summary way, what a laser light is. Electrons in an optical material are excited by receiving energy in the form of light or electricity and absorb it. The extra energy prompts the electrons to move to a higher energy orbit. This shift is unstable and electrons soon have to return to their normal orbit, emitting photons along the way. In laser beams, photons all move in the same direction and at the same wavelength, and this is what Chinese scientists have managed to achieve.
“Imagine electrons as athletes rowing in boats. The team that manages to create bigger waves and generate more power will win the race. The best strategy is for all athletes to row in the same direction, ”said Tian. So the Chinese were able to align the photons and make them "Row" all in the same direction.
Now, experts around the world argue that the new technology could easily find applications to improve security controls, making machines for more efficient body scanning, or for developing more advanced electronic devices such as smartphones.
"With further refinement and finding ways to produce higher-frequency light, the tiny silicon-based lasers made with this technology will find their way into phones and other high-speed communications devices and precision sensors," he said. 'SCMP David Gozzard, of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia, who did not participate in the study.
The development also has the potential to be incorporated into other ongoing research.
"The prospect of replicating (these) results with visible radiation is particularly exciting, because it could lead to highly compact sources of amplified light," Harvard University physicist Nicholas Rivera wrote in a commentary published by Nature.
"This could be particularly useful in materials, such as silicon, which are widespread and easily fabricated, but which have so far proved difficult to use as supports for lasers," he added.
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The article China: Scientists Discover How To Generate A Laser Effect That Can Revolutionize Communication And Telephony Comes From Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cina-scienziati-scoprono-come-generare-un-effetto-laser-che-puo-rivoluzionare-comunicazione-e-telefonia/ on Sat, 05 Nov 2022 21:19:31 +0000.