CNN Article

[Image] [Image]

School beaming over its blue

laser

November 17, 1997

Web posted at: 11:21 p.m. EST (0421 GMT)

From Correspondent Jim Hill

SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN)

-- Engineering students at the University

of California at Santa Barbara are

looking into the future and seeing blue --

the first blue laser developed by a

university.

The blue laser is considered the hottest

development in the field of

optoelectronics and has touched off a competition that is as intense and focused as a

laser beam itself.

Companies around the world are racing to perfect and patent the technology for color

printers and a new generation of compact discs.

"I was jumping up and down. It was incredible," said Kehl Sink, a graduate student.

"Just a feeling of finally after two years of work having this come true."

Mike Mark, another graduate student said: "The blue laser has sort of been the Holy

Grail of making semi-conductor lasers."

That's because blue is better than the standard red laser in high-tech electronics.

"Blue lasers have shorter wave lengths so you can focus in to tighter spots and

therefore you can store more information on a compact disc because you store it

more tightly," said Amber Abare, a graduate student.

Professor Larry Coldren of UC-Santa Barbara said: "There's a market, I guess, that

people see on the horizon for billions of dollars, and so many companies want to get

into this."

Blue has been baffling for engineers.

Only a few companies in Japan and the

United States, as well as the Santa

Barbara team, have such a laser.

"People have been trying to make it for

25 years and it's basically because it's

such high energy that it's been difficult

to make," said Professor Steven

Denbaars of UC-Santa Barbara.

UC researchers use gallium nitride

heated in a high temperature process to

form wafers that produce blue diode

laser light. Unlike the toxic processes in

many semi-conductor operations, this is

clean.

"It's really quite a remarkable process. It's as pollution-free as you can get. It's very

exciting," said Professor Umesh Mishra of UC-Santa Barbara.

The laser must be perfected before it can be used in electronics. But experts say by

the turn of the century, consumers will be seeing blue.

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