The next generation laser can carry more communication data

Laser has become an important part of our daily life. From mobile phones and tablets to autonomous vehicle and data communications – even the information you are reading now may be transmitted to you via lasers.
The application of this technology is so extensive that even researchers who deal with lasers daily are constantly surprised. These include Dr. Martin Pl ö schner, a researcher at the Institute of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) of the University of Queensland.
Dr. Pl ö schner said: “In the past 15 years, I have been studying lasers, but I am often surprised to find that they appear in the most unexpected places. In many of their applications, part of the spectrum of laser work is invisible to our eyes. The mind often does not know what the eye cannot see. If lasers work more in the visible part of the spectrum, the world around us will be a spectacular laser show.”
One of the hidden applications of laser is optical data communication – laser transmits information quickly through optical fiber.
However, the growing demand for faster and more frequent access to data is pushing optical networks around the world to the limit, which is known as the “capacity crisis”.
Dr Joel Carpenter of the University of Queensland ITEE said that laser pulses transmitted along glass or plastic fibers travel at different speeds and can overlap, slowing the process. Imagine yelling at a friend through a long concrete pipe. Your information will be distorted, depending on the number of echoes in the pipeline. You must wait for the echo of one message to disappear before sending the next message.
A similar problem exists in a large number of computer servers. The number of echoes depends on the shape and color of the laser emitted into the fiber. Measuring the characteristics of laser is very important to improve the laser performance, but there is no method to fully capture this complexity
Dr Pl ö schner, Dr Carpenter and their team – with expertise in laser beam manipulation, shaping and characterization – are keen to solve this problem. In partnership with II-VI, a leading laser manufacturer, they spent three years researching a way to make lasers faster and improve performance.
They have developed a tool that can measure the output of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and allow the inspection of large amounts of data carried by their light.
Dr Pl ö schner said: “The system itself is only the size of a shoe box. You just need to insert it into the path of the laser beam. It can tell us how the laser beam evolves over time and changes its shape and color. This information is crucial to how the beam transmits through optical fiber.”
The results can now be used to improve the next generation of lasers.
Dr. Pl ö schner said: “Our tool will make it possible to identify the beam characteristics that cause ‘pulse diffusion’ in the optical link, which will reduce the speed of data.”
Laser engineers can design lasers without these rogue features, so as to achieve faster speed and longer operating distance optical links. Any tool that can facilitate faster data transmission over long distances is helpful.
Dr. Pl ö schner said that improved laser technology would benefit a range of industries, from telecommunications to security and automobile manufacturing. Autonomous vehicle use lasers to create 3D images of the scene to help them navigate or reverse park in places with heavy traffic.
Every time you use facial recognition to unlock your smartphone, you will be scanned by hundreds of micro lasers. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a huge demand to manufacture lasers with improved performance. This breakthrough will unlock the information treasure house of the beam.