WHAT: Mazur Group Femtosecond Laser
WHERE: Gordon McKay Laboratory, Department of Physics, Harvard University
WHY: This prototype laser system will trigger a new generation of ultrahigh-density data storage devices expected to be available in about 10 years. Other applications include micromachining and minimally invasive laser surgery.
WHO: Principal investigator Eric Mazur, Chris Schaffer, André Brodeur, Nozomi Nishimura, Nan Shen
HOW: A diode-pumped commercial solid-state laser passes through the specially configured titanium sapphire crystal, which converts the beam into pulses of 20 femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth of a second). A Zeiss microscope focuses the laser into a ray less than 1 micrometer in diameter and powerful enough to trigger microexplosions inside a piece of glass or plastic - without affecting its surface. Like pits in a CD, the pattern left by the blasts records data. Unlike a CD burner, the laser can penetrate the medium to create stacked layers of information.
MORE: mazur-www.harvard.edu
