Penny-sized laser could transform LiDAR and physics

Laser-based measurement techniques (optical metrology) can be used to study the physical properties of objects and materials, but current optical metrology requires bulky and expensive equipment to achieve delicate laser-wave control.

The new chip-scale laser developed by a team from the University of Rochester and University of California, Santa Barbara can conduct extremely fast and accurate measurements by very precisely changing its colour across a broad spectrum of light at about 10 quintillion times per second. The research is detailed in Light: Science & Applications.

Unlike traditional silicon photonics, the laser is made with lithium niobate and leverages the Pockels effect, which changes the refractive index of a material when an electric field is present.

“There are several applications we are aiming for that can already benefit from our designs,” said Shixin Xue, a PhD student advised by Qiang Lin, the Dean’s Professor of electrical and computer engineering and optics, both of whom are among the paper’s authors. “The first is LiDAR, which is already used in autonomous vehicles, but a more advanced form known as frequency-modulated continuous-wave LiDAR requires a large tuning range and fast tuning of the laser’s frequency, and that’s what our laser can do.”