Researchers Create Working Nano Laser

Zothecula writes "Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a laser the size of a virus particle that can operate at room temperature. The 'nanolaser,' which uses gold nanoparticles instead of mirrors, is claimed to be the first demonstration to make use of a so-called bowtie arrangement of metal nanoparticles, though nano-scale lasers have been previously demonstrated." Original paper (paywalled, unfortunately).

Finally

[Fallingcow]

Lasers for my nano sharks.

Re:

[Nyder]

Lasers for my nano sharks.

Sharks get all the cool gear.

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[geekmux]

Lasers for my nano sharks.

Or perhaps common viruses were feeling inferior for some reason, and needed to upgrade.

If so, I blame Ebola. That bitch can be downright ruthless on the playground.

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[ColdWetDog]

Tadpoles?

Goldfish, of course.

You guys, keep up.

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[bjohnso5]

It's pretty clearly a shark fin with a water reflection on my screen. Are you on a smartphone or something?

Great.... but...

[heatseeker_around]

That's great. Seems to be wonderful. But what will it be used for / with ? What industry will benefit of this "invention" ? Will it be the direct or indirect source of any improvements in our daily life ?

Re:Great.... but...

[mcgrew]

That's great. Seems to be wonderful. But what will it be used for / with ? What industry will benefit of this "invention" ?

Funny, they asked the same things when lasers themselves were invented. Nowdays, how many lasers are in your house? The fact is, you never know when a "useless" invention or discovery will turn out to be earth-shaking.

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[Anonymous Coward]

It is still a valid question. Just the negative answer is not "it has no use," it is "we don't know yet," and in some cases you can refine that with a short term time frame over which it won't likely be usable. And plenty of discoveries have immediate or long term uses in mind, and some idea on how long before the discovery can be manufactured and work outside the lab.

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[Type44Q]

...you never know when a "useless" invention or discovery will turn out to be earth-shaking.

...or retina-searing. :p

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[samion.blanc]

yep, there are a ton of 'useless' inventions that are now used all the time and made huge amounts of money. like post-it notes, fedex were told overnight delivery would never work. or how about bill gates saying 640kb of memory would be the max anyone would need.

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[tattood]

I would imagine that they could attach it to nano-bots that go inside the body and zap cancer cells or other diseases.

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[wonkey_monkey]

!useful != !awesome

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[gestalt_n_pepper]

Laser array memory? Internal chip communication? UV laser sterilization wrap? Just off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more.

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[oodaloop]

Exactly. And what good is a new born baby?

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[karstdiver]

Imagine the laser light shows!

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[brad3378]

Might be good for squeezing more data on an optical drive?

NanoSharks!

[Pepebuho]

Now we need nano Sharks

MIT does not have researchers?

[Yokoshima]

Why is it that anytime MIT does something Slashdot reads "MIT does something" (see http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/11/07/1559210/mit-slows-down-speed-of-light-in-new-game [slashdot.org]) and whenever another university does something it is the generic "Researchers do stuff"?

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[AZURERAZOR]

Better publicists?

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[Dmritard96]

Totally agree

Defies the diffraction limit of light?

[jstave]

Can someone explain what they mean about defying the diffraction limit of light? How can that be?

Forget sharks...

[Type44Q]

How about sperm with laser strapped to their heads. :p

I want one

[Anonymous Coward]

I want one.

Of course, it's so small that if I had one, I probably wouldn't know it.