Chaotic cavity key to high-quality laser images

Based on a chaotic cavity laser, the technology is said to combine the brightness of traditional lasers with the lower image corruption of light emitting diodes (LEDs). The new laser is described in a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a statement, co-author A. Douglas Stone, the Carl A. Morse Professor and chair of applied physics, and professor of physics said: ‘This chaotic cavity laser is a great example of basic research ultimately leading to a potentially important invention for the social good.

‘All of the foundational work was primarily motivated by a desire to understand certain classes of lasers - random and chaotic - with no known applications. Eventually, with input from other disciplines, we discovered that these lasers are uniquely suited for a wide class of problems in imaging and microscopy.’

One of those problems – dubbed ‘speckle’ - is a random, grainy pattern caused by high spatial coherence that can corrupt the formation of images when traditional lasers are used. A way to avoid such distortion is by using LED light sources, which are often not bright enough for high-speed imaging.