Plastic Lasers

sdodson writes: ""Researchers at the Bell Laboratories of Lucent Technologies have created the first solid laser from organic materials... which have been dubbed 'plastic lasers'... " and "can be relatively easily manipulated to emit light ranging from ultraviolet to infrared." These new lasers will require less power, and will have many applications in communications as well as medicine. The New York Times has the article." This will be big. Of course, it's still a long way down the road.

Comments

About the word "organic"

[Alik]

"Organic" does not mean it is made from a plant, or that it is somehow a natural material. The word "organic" is used here in the same context as "organic chemistry", and simply means that the chemicals and crystals under study contain carbon chains. Most of the molecules in living things are some kind of carbon structure with things hanging off of it; therefore, these kinds of molecules were declared the "organic" molecules. There are plenty of organic molecules which are never found in your body, though. Most plastics and polymers are organics. I suspect that the average Slashdot reader is not composed of Teflon.

(Given that this laser is based on a benzene derivative, it may be a compound one finds somewhere in nature, but I wouldn't bet on it.)