Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., and Brown University in Providence, R.I., have developed a 383-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The InGaN device, which may find applications in chemical sensing, could be used in solid-state illumination by exciting phosphors that produce white light. Such light sources would both save $100 million and reduce carbon emissions by 350 million tons annually.

The 3-mW prototype, which the scientists reported in the Oct. 12 issue of Electronics Letters, is optically pumped with a frequency-tripled, mode-locked Nd:YAG laser. The group hopes to produce an electrically pumped VCSEL within one to two years.