Laser capable of emitting light quiet enough to move demanding scientific applications

Science Daily  February 1, 2019
Under a DARPA sponsored initiative an international team of researcher (USA – UC Santa Barbara, industry partners, Northern Arizona University, Yale University, Portugal) has developed a chip-scale laser capable of emitting light with a fundamental linewidth of less than 1 Hz. They leveraged stimulated Brillouin scattering to build the lasers. The circuits were built with waveguides that are extremely low loss. They formed into a Brillouin laser ring cavity on the chip. They can store an extremely large number of photons on the chip, handle extremely high levels of optical power inside the optical cavity and guide photons along the waveguide much as a rail guides a monorail train. The research has led to multiple new funded projects…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

Artist’s interpretation of the optical dynamics inside the laser ring cavity of the new Brillouin laser. Credit: Brian Long