SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS: Two-color 'nanosheet' lasers light the way for displays and illumination

摘要

The quest for laser-based broadband emitters for lighting and other applications has received a boost, with researchers at Arizona State University (ASU; Tempe, AZ) unveiling a single, nanoengineered heterostructure that lases at 526 and 623 nm. Solid-state structures that emit across the visible spectrum will surely lead to applications in commercial lighting and displays. Cracking the problem in semiconductor structures would also advance applications such as multi-spectral detection and high-efficiency photovoltaics. The problem with semiconductors has traditionally been limitations imposed by their crystalline structure, with semiconductor lasers emitting in narrow wavelength ranges. Recent work has focused on achieving more broadband emission simply by engineering chemically different structures with differing bandgaps that allow them to emit at different wavelengths.