Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have built an ultra-small nanolaser designed to let microchips send data with light instead of electricity. Thousands of the devices could fit on a single chip, and the team estimates the approach could cut computers' energy consumption by roughly half.
The laser relies on a nanocavity, a light-trapping structure built on work from Professor Ole Sigmund's group at DTU Construct, that squeezes both photons and electrons into an extremely small space. That confinement lets the device operate at room temperature on very little power, unlike many earlier nanolasers that needed heavy cooling.
The team, publishing in Science Advances, says the technology could speed up data centers, smartphones and medical sensors while sharply lowering their power draw. The biggest remaining hurdle is getting the nanolaser to run on electrical rather than optical power, a challenge researchers expect to take another five to ten years to solve.