Scientists of Samara University Created Miniature Laser “Needles”

Scientists of Samara University developed miniature laser “needles” that allow materials to be processed with high accuracy giving them new properties.

As researchers note, the important field of application of light “needles” is creation and modification of materials at the nanolevel that allows construction of complex structures with unique properties and improved characteristics. Besides that, high accuracy and flexibility of light “needles” make them indispensable tool in the field of optical microscopy. High-resolution images can be obtained with their help.

“The advantage of our “needles” is relatively uniform distribution of light energy in focus. That means that even in case of small deviations in optical system the laser beam maintains sufficient intensity to interact with the object. Such stability allows to compensate errors in equipment settings and provides high accuracy of manipulations”, – said Dmitry Savelyev, Associate Professor of the Department of Engineering Cybernetics of Samara University. According to him, light “needles” may also be used for storage of information with high density that allows creating more compact and capacious data carriers.

Research in the field of light laser “needles” is being actively conducted by scientists all over the world. However, development of specialists of Samara National Research University has a number of peculiarities.

Firstly, laser “needle” is located in close proximity to the optic element, the dimensions of which are only some hundreds of nanometers. Secondly, the “needle” itself has the length not exceeding some wavelengths of light. Such miniaturization allows to essentially increase accuracy of manipulations at the microlevel.

According to the specialists of the university, development of light “needles” is one of the stages towards creation of optical computers operating on the basis of light. Now the scientists continue improving the technologies of formation of laser beams with given properties, accumulate new data and develop computer models for optimization of the structure of microscopic optical elements.

The research is performed within the framework of the RSF fellowship “Intelligent development of 3D complex optical elements” (No. 24-22-00044).

Source: ri.ria.ru