Disposable Lasers Created Using Inkjet Printer (dailymail.co.uk) 60
An anonymous reader quotes this report from The Daily Mail:
Researchers have invented a way to print lasers that's so cheap, easy and efficient they believe the core of the laser could be disposed of after each use. The disposable organic lasers amplify light with carbon-containing materials and they are produced using a simple inkjet printer...
"The low-cost and easiness of laser chip fabrication are the most significant aspects of our results," said Sebastien Sanaur, an associate professor in the Center of Microelectronics in Provence at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne in France... One obstacle that has held back organic lasers is the fact that they degrade relatively quickly -- but that hurdle might be less daunting if the lasers are so cheap they could be tossed when they fail. Sanaur's research team produced their ultra-low-cost organic laser using a familiar technology: an inkjet printer... They estimate it could be produced for only a few cents. Like the replaceable blades in a razor, the lasing capsule could be easily swapped out when it deteriorates.
"The low-cost and easiness of laser chip fabrication are the most significant aspects of our results," said Sebastien Sanaur, an associate professor in the Center of Microelectronics in Provence at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne in France... One obstacle that has held back organic lasers is the fact that they degrade relatively quickly -- but that hurdle might be less daunting if the lasers are so cheap they could be tossed when they fail. Sanaur's research team produced their ultra-low-cost organic laser using a familiar technology: an inkjet printer... They estimate it could be produced for only a few cents. Like the replaceable blades in a razor, the lasing capsule could be easily swapped out when it deteriorates.
Oh great (Score:1)
Now even *more* garbage in landfills.
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Orgy-Porgy.
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Likely the replaceable component will be in a plastic cartridge like everything else. Plus, even biodegradable things are a problem in a landfill due to the lack of air for the bacteria.
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Just don't (Score:3)
Do Not Look Into 3D Printer With Remaining Eye
Disposable? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why the fuck would anyone create yet another disposable anything? Is there a widespread contagion of viruses caused by unsanitary lasers shared by groups of people?
We live in a closed system with limited ressources, stop wasting them and turning them into garbage!
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At some point in time we'll find out that all that coal and oil we use today is nothing but the garbage pits of the dinosaurs.
Why do you hate capitalism? (Score:3)
Why the fuck would anyone create yet another disposable anything? Is there a widespread contagion of viruses caused by unsanitary lasers shared by groups of people?
We live in a closed system with limited ressources, stop wasting them and turning them into garbage!
Please, won't someone think of the potential for advertizing [youtube.com]?
This could be a revolution in the way we highlight products and services that the consumer might be interested in.
Why do you hate capitalism?
Re:Why do you hate capitalism? (Score:4, Informative)
Why do you hate capitalism?
Because it is destroying the world and bottom line man kind?
Re: Why do you hate capitalism? (Score:1)
Capitalism + technology is the best chance the world has, period (unless you're a fan of the Fallout way of life). Scary that people are starting to use their capitalism invented technology to berate the system.
Re:Why do you hate capitalism? (Score:4, Insightful)
Now nerds want comic book movies and to complain about the doom and gloom of the future. Well good luck with that. The enlightenment is dead, long live romanticism. I hear there's a new zombie move coming out.
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Now nerds want comic book movies and to complain about the doom and gloom of the future. Well good luck with that.
To be fair, wages have stagnated [motherjones.com] and lots of people are out of a job [wordpress.com].
It makes perfect sense [wikipedia.org] to be worried about the future, and devote time to complaining and looking for solutions.
(And not to put too fine a point on it, WE are the smart people in the room. If answers are to come, they will come from forward-looking individuals like us.)
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Did you pay Cash for your houses, and vehicles?
No?
Then you don't own them, so if that's the case, your point is a bit thin, at best.
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With interest rates as low as they are, you would be a moron to buy a house with cash. You can invest the money instead and make a higher return.
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Not too long ago, fewer than 10 years ago, people here used to get excited about developments like this and all the new technologies it would enable. Print a monitor or any sort of electronic circuit on a piece of cheap paper for pennies, no more big polluting factories. Download and print a cell phone, print a wall size monitor. It's what all the nerds wanted.
The people who used to get excited about that are now 10 years older and their idea of excitement is coming up with ways to keep teenagers off their lawns. Somewhere in that whole proper progression from enthusiasm to bitterness, I screwed up and remained enthusiastic, while it appeas that most at slasdot have claimed any bitterness I might have gained.
But there are still people like me, and younger ones who enjoy new stuff.
Re:Why do you hate capitalism? (Score:4, Informative)
Why do you hate capitalism?
because it...
* enables psychopaths to gain power and bleed your for all your worth
* has corrupted our government and degraded our rights
* promotes misinformation
* is destroying our society
* is killing our next generation with sugar
* is killing our ecosystem both on land and water
* is unsustainable
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I believe it is like triumphalism, but without the triumph!
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To be fair, I think those points are much more valid when talking about the over-financialization of capitalism.
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In Soviet Russia, things dispose of you!
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Maybe they can figure out a way of making them from used Keurig K-cups.
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I'm just trying to figure out a use case for a disposable laser.
The only one I can come up with is some kind of party favor and even then I'm guessing it would need a power source.
It usually seems that any value beyond "ooh, laser" almost always requires some amount of non-disposable electronics that make the laser useful.
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Any time you needed a short term bit of coherent light. Activating a product. Cutting a hole in something. Lighting up a sign. Blowing something up (always a favorite).
Holographic Storage!!!! I win!!!!
Oh. Wait.
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Anything can be disposable at any price if the use has other constraints. I've worked with equipment in the past used for mining and ocean monitoring equipment that had $1k+ lasers that were disposable, because it would have taken a lot more resources to make the rest of the equipment survive longer or be easier to retrieve, etc. A classmate in grad school worked on an experiment that would destroy about $10k with of optics every time it went off. But that was enough years ago that now the experimental s
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Consumables? (Score:1)
What do you have to grind up to feed into the hopper? Because lasers will never be cheap if you have to buy cartridges.
Will it scale? (Score:2)
How far will it scale? Watts/area limits?
Can I make disposable lasers (for my sharks) with a 5 gallon bucket of this goo?
Help me out, so I don't have to RTFA.
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Yes, it does. Lasers based on organic dyes are known for decades. I've seen a DIY project in 1970-s magazine. And it was large. Something like, yes, a gallon bucket. What is interesting in this new approach is that it is small.
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Before the sharks dispose of you?
Fin. (Score:2)
Even better. I have jumpable sharks.
Now we need sharks (Score:2)
Imagine the possibilities, if we could only get a way to print disposable miniature sharks.
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Okay, okay. So I 3D print a shark [yeggi.com] and then use my inkjet to print a disposable laser...
Does that make it a ... (Score:5, Funny)
... laser printer?
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Mod this up. AC wins the pun round this time.
Scientific Article with actual info (Score:3, Informative)
You'd think professional journalists would properly cite even link to the original publication.
Oussama Mhibik, Sebastien Chenais, Sebastien Forget, Christophe Defranoux and Sebastien Sanaur: Inkjet-printed vertically emitting solid-state organic lasers, J. Appl. Phys. 119, 173101 (2016).
http://scitation.aip.org/conte... [aip.org]
Re:Scientific Article with actual info (Score:4, Insightful)
This is the Daily Mail. I don't think this quite gets to the 'professional journalism' level.
Obligitory (Score:1)
WARNING
Do Not point LASER at remaining eye.
Re:Obligitory/Fixed (Score:1)
Yeah, it's never good to post with only two hours sleep...
WARNING
Do Not point disposable LASER at remaining eye.
What now? (Score:2)
Cheap or done by inkjet printers? Make up your mind!
Cheap, easy, simple inkjet? (Score:2)
What problem does this solve? (Score:2)
I guess I'm missing something cause for the life of me, I can't figure out what problem this is supposed to be solving. Apart from maybe healthcare (sterile laser "heads" for laser-based surgeries, etc), I don't see why someone would need single use disposable lasers.
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I was imagining lighted blinking beer posters festooning the walls of every bar.
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Sometimes a box of matches is cheaper than a cigarette lighter, and more reliable too.
Isn't it just a down-converter? (Score:2)
"Like the replaceable blades in a razor"? (Score:2)
Yeah, with the same business model that made inkjet printers such a phenomenal advantage.