"In this work, we present a new kind of light source that is more efficient in terms of power consumption and speed," explained PhD student Babak Bahari.
BICs are said to be waves that remain perfectly confined, or bound, in an open system as opposed to conventional waves, which escape.
The researchers claim BIC lasers can be tuned to emit beams of different wavelengths, a useful feature for medical lasers made to precisely target cancer cells. They can also be made to emit beams with specially engineered shapes – called vector beams – which according to the team could enable computers and optical communication systems that can carry up to 10 times more information.
"And what's remarkable is that we can get surface lasing to occur with arrays as small as 8 × 8 particles," said professor Boubacar Kanté.
The array could be scaled up in size to create high power lasers for industrial and defence applications. "A fundamental challenge in high power lasers is heating and with the predicted efficiencies of our BIC lasers, a new era of laser technologies may become possible," Prof Kanté said.
The team's next step is to make BIC lasers that are electrically powered, rather than optically powered by another laser. "An electrically pumped laser is portable outside the lab and can run off a conventional battery source," Prof Kanté concluded.