Whoa – a laser story that doesn’t involve someone mounting a man-killing laser on top of some kind of vehicle?! SAY IT AIN’T SO!
Professor Douglas Stone and his team of Yale scientists have discovered a way to get material to nearly completely absorb laser light. They’ve developed this thing – more of a material, really – called a CPA, or Coherent Perfect Absorber. What it seems the team has done is to take the Law of Conservation of Energy and used it to their advantage. Do we all remember the Law of Conservation of Energy?
Energy can not be created or destroyed – it can only change form.
So what the scientists have done here, in layman’s terms, is that they’ve figured out a way to get laser light to basically be absorbed into a medium by waiting until that laser light bounces around this little silicon chamber until its energy changes forms to heat energy. Stone and his team used a silicon structure to basically take beams of laser light and capture them in this silicon medium until they change form to heat energy. Right now his team says that they can capture 99.4% of the light through absorption, but their Coherent Perfect Absorber will potentially be able to capture 99.99% of the laser light shone into the CPA.
Why this is significant is that silicon is already being used in the semiconductor industry in computers – this new technology from Yale and Douglas Stone’s team has potentially many, many uses in computing – the hope is that they’ll be able to use these tech as a way to make microswitches and other types of computer components. Hey, using light instead of electrons? Awesome!
Very cool!
Thanks CTV, BBC, PopSci, and NewScientist!
