Source/Type: CompoundSemi Online -- Compound Semiconductor Supply Chain News - Reported News

Brighter Lasers for Tomorrow's Technologies
Author: CompoundSemi News Staff

April 28, 2008... Twenty-two of Europe's top research teams have joined forces to develop new generation high brightness lasers. The research teams come from industry, internationally recognized research laboratories, and leading academic institutions. Funding of €16.25m (with €9.7m from the European Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme) will go towards the project called WWW.BRIGHTER.EU, which runs until September 2009. The project name stands for 'World Wide Welfare: High-Brightness Semiconductor Lasers for Generic Use'. The researchers expect that the new high brightness lasers will eventually transform the fields of healthcare, communications, and entertainment.

Ultimately the collaboration hopes to make lasers smaller, brighter, more efficient, and cheaper in an extended range of colors (wavelengths). Additionally, they hope to couple more light power into smaller diameter optical fibers. Partners from 10 European countries will work together on the project that builds upon the successful WWW.BRIGHT.EU project, which was completed in 2006. Two leading universities represent the UK in the BRIGHTER Consortium: The University of Nottingham and the University of Cambridge.

Project coordinator, Michel Krakowski of Alcatel-Thales III-V Lab in France, said, “There are huge markets for laser diode technology. There are a lot of applications that currently are not possible to address without high-powered diode lasers, either because of cost, colour or portability. The goal of this project is to develop new lasers with increased power and brightness. It's about how tightly we can focus the beam.” WWW.BRIGHTER.EU News Release

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