ORC researchers achieve breakthrough in tuneable "super-mode" lasers
Colleagues from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have worked alongside a team of international researchers on a project which has achieved the spontaneous synchronisation of multiple microscopic lasers at room temperature for the first time, creating a coherent and reconfigurable light source.
The research, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates how tiny lasers, each tens of times smaller than the width of a human hair, can be aligned to operate as a single unified light source, known as a ‘super-mode’.
This breakthrough could have exciting implications for future photonic computing technologies. Photonic computers use particles of light rather than electrons to process information, making them faster, capable of handling larger amounts of data and more energy efficient. ‘Super-mode’ lasers could therefore support the development of faster and more efficient computing systems.
The method for creating ‘super-mode’ lasers previously used highly specialised semiconductor microcavities operating at temperatures below minus 250°C. In this instance, the team successfully demonstrated that it can be achieved at room temperature, opening new possibilities for future practical devices.
The team includes researchers from the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology in Poland, and the Institut Pascal at Université Clermont Auvergne in France.
Dr Dmitriy Dovzhenko from the ORC, who conceived the experiment and is the paper's first author, said:
"Our results show that you don't need complex light-matter coupled states or low temperatures to achieve this kind of collective behaviour of light. We can obtain similar effects in a much simpler and more practical platform, which offers all-optical reconfigurability, electrical tuneability and robust operation under ambient conditions."
The research has demonstrated a system that operates at room temperature and uses well-established materials, offering potential for future practical uses.