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SYLA: Symposium 50 Years of Lasers

SYLA 2: 50 Years of Lasers II

SYLA 2.1: Hauptvortrag

Mittwoch, 10. März 2010, 16:30–17:00, E 415

Our Daily Life with Semiconductor Lasers — •Dieter Bimberg — TU Berlin

Semiconductor Lasers present an exceptional success story of brake-throughs in fundamental physics. A fundamentally new effect - stimulated emission from a p-n-diode - was observed at the time of discovery and quite some time afterwards at low temperatures only. By intelligent band structure engineering, however, the door was opened in 1970 by Alferov and Krömer for room temperature operation (Nobel Prize 30 years later in 2000). The following 25 years double heterostructure lasers became the enabling devices for intercontinental optical communication,the basis of the internet.50 years after discovery, 2010, vertical and edge emitting semiconductor lasers, based on an ever increasing variety of material systems and nanostructures, operating from the UV to the middle IR, at very small mW or very large kW output power, present a backbone of modern energy efficient technology, being omnipresent in our daily life. DVDs, the optical mouse, the Terabus,the 100 G Ethernet, material processing, medical applications,.. exemplify the ever increasing economic importance of the discovery of an orchid 50 years ago.