Whether it be computing systems, sensors, or lidars, the modern photonics business is constantly working to make its products smaller. Making lasers, transistors, and other components compact is required for this. A team of scientists proposed an affordable, fast fabrication method to create optical chips in a Petri dish.
Devices built on microscopic lasers and optical chips are being used more frequently. They are employed in creating lidars, novel biosensors, and the potential development of new optical computers that will process and transmit data using photons instead of electrons in the future. The lasers used by today’s optical chips emit light in the infrared (IR) region, which is invisible to the human eye.
But since the size of a chip relies on the wavelength of its emission, working in the visible range is necessary to make the devices even more compact.
Lasers and waveguides are just some parts that make up an optical processor. A source that emits in the green or red region of the spectrum can be made quite easily, but finding waveguides for these frequencies can be challenging.
A microlaser is a radiation source that needs to be directed. And waveguides are used for this. However, the common silicon waveguides used in IR optics are ineffective in the visible spectrum.
Related Content: Wearable Sensor Monitors Oxygen Levels Through Skin