The world’s smallest laser that is 10 times smaller than the wavelength of light has been produced. Scientists have called it a ‘spaser.’
Spaser stands for Surface Plasmon Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. This comes nearly 50 years since lasers were first created.
Spaser are capable of producing laser-like light.
But the way the laser and spaser produce light is totally different. While the conventional laser amplifies light, a spaser amplifies only the surface plasmons — tiny oscillations in the density of free electrons on the surface of metals.
Scientists had first proposed the spaser concept six years ago. A spaser is the smallest possible quantum amplifier and generator of optical fields on the nanoscale.
Writing in the Nature , Mikhail Noginov from the Norfolk State University in Virginia and his team state that they were able to produce laser-like light by stimulating the emission of surface plasmons on a gold nanoparticle and amplifing them.
The success opens up great opportunities and possibilities. It represents a critical component for possible future technologies based on ‘nanophotonic’ circuitry.
A Purdue University release states: nanophotonics may usher in a host of radical advances, including powerful "hyperlenses" resulting in sensors and microscopes 10 times more powerful than today's and able to see objects as small as DNA; computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information; and more efficient solar collectors.
Writing in the journal Nature , Mikhail Noginov from the Norfolk State University in Virginia notes: “now [that] it has been realised experimentally, the spaser will advance our fundamental understanding of nanoplasmonics and the development of practical applications.”