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A new kind of laser could mean cheaper gadgets for allLasers might be pushing 50, but they are still the youthful pin-ups of fundamental physics. Since the first one was unveiled in 1960, the more apocalyptic predictions of how they might be used - as death rays, for example - have proved to be overblown. Their peaceful application, on the other hand, can be seen everywhere from cutting and welding to combating cancer and cataracts, to powering telecoms and consumer electronics, and has mushroomed into an industry worth $6 billion in 2007. Advances in the laser lab translate into gadgets...

Physicists at the University of California, San Diego have for the first time observed the spontaneous production of coherence within "excitons," the bound pairs of electrons and holes that enable semiconductors to function as novel electronic devices. Scientists working in the emerging field of nanotechnology, which is finding commercial applications for ultra-small material objects, believe that this newly discovered property could eventually help the development of novel computing devices and provide them with new insights into the quirky quantum properties of matter. Details of the new finding appear in a paper published in the November 3 issue of the journal...

Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 177401 (issue of 24 October 2003)   22 October 2003 Title and Authors The Travels of An Exciton   K. Matsuda/Kanagawa Acad. of Science and Tech. Trapped and tracked. The first images of the motion of an exciton--a particle essential to modern electronics--and a biexciton show that the lighter exciton (top) roams farther. Researchers have tracked their first exciton. A team reports in the 24 October PRL that they imaged the wave-like motion of the particle, which is essential to the operation of lasers in CD players and grocery scanners. They detected the light of a single...