Lasers to speed up computing

Faster, smaller electronics are one step closer with researchers from The Australian National University successfully making the first room temperature lasers from gallium arsenide nanowires.

“The wires and lasers will lead to much faster, much lighter computers because light travels faster than electrons, allowing us to process data much faster,” explains Mr Dhruv Saxena from the Research School of Physics & Engineering.

“The lasers in use at the moment often require a lot of processing steps to produce a nice cavity and mirrors in order to emit laser light,” explains Saxena, who went on to explain these older lasers also are much bulkier.

“We have a substrate covered in gold particles which act as catalysts, or seeds.”

“We provide gases containing gallium and arsenic and raise the temperature of the substrate up to 750°C. At these temperatures the elements react and nanowires start growing.”

“It’s crystal growth,” adds Saxena. “The substrate provides the direction of the growth, so they grow straight up, standing vertically on the substrate instead of growing in random directions.”

“The shape of the nanowire confines light along its axis. The ends of the nanowire are like tiny mirrors that bounce light back and forth along the wire and the gallium arsenide amplifies it. After a certain threshold, we get laser light,”

Now that gallium arsenide nanowire lasers have been shown to work at room temperature, Saxena hopes this research will lead to cheaper, faster and lighter computers.

“We hope our lasers could be used in photonic circuits on a chip that enable computing using light,” concludes Professor Chennupati Jagadish, who leads this research.