A New Blue Laser Two groups have just announced a new kind of
solid-state laser that emits bright blue-violet light, raising
hopes of getting green PHOTO: Tony Mastres/UC Santa Barbara
Researchers working in California and Japan have demonstrated a
promising new gallium-nitride laser that emits bright blue-
violet light and may eventually be coaxed to go green. The
consumer electronics industry craves these colors, because they
can pack lots of data into smaller areas and be combined with
other sources to create full-color displays. First off the mark
on 27 January was a group led by Shuji Nakamura, Steven P.
DenBaars, and James S. Speck at the University of California at
Santa Barbara. (Nakamura is famous for inventing the blue-
emitting GaN diode in 1992 and the blue GaN laser in
1996—achievements for which he was awarded the 2006 Millennium
Technology Prize.) UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang recalls getting a
phone call that rainy Saturday afternoon urging him to hurry
down to the laboratory in the university’s So