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Disposable Lasers Created Using Inkjet Printer (dailymail.co.uk)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the light-reading dept.

An anonymous reader quotes this report from The Daily Mail: Researchers have invented a way to print lasers that's so cheap, easy and efficient they believe the core of the laser could be disposed of after each use. The disposable organic lasers amplify light with carbon-containing materials and they are produced using a simple inkjet printer...

"The low-cost and easiness of laser chip fabrication are the most significant aspects of our results," said Sebastien Sanaur, an associate professor in the Center of Microelectronics in Provence at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne in France... One obstacle that has held back organic lasers is the fact that they degrade relatively quickly -- but that hurdle might be less daunting if the lasers are so cheap they could be tossed when they fail. Sanaur's research team produced their ultra-low-cost organic laser using a familiar technology: an inkjet printer... They estimate it could be produced for only a few cents. Like the replaceable blades in a razor, the lasing capsule could be easily swapped out when it deteriorates.

11 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Disposable? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why the fuck would anyone create yet another disposable anything? Is there a widespread contagion of viruses caused by unsanitary lasers shared by groups of people?

    We live in a closed system with limited ressources, stop wasting them and turning them into garbage!

    1. Re:Disposable? by Al+Al+Cool+J · · Score: 2

      Maybe they can figure out a way of making them from used Keurig K-cups.

  2. Why do you hate capitalism? by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2

    Why the fuck would anyone create yet another disposable anything? Is there a widespread contagion of viruses caused by unsanitary lasers shared by groups of people?

    We live in a closed system with limited ressources, stop wasting them and turning them into garbage!

    Please, won't someone think of the potential for advertizing?

    This could be a revolution in the way we highlight products and services that the consumer might be interested in.

    Why do you hate capitalism?

    1. Re:Why do you hate capitalism? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why do you hate capitalism?
      Because it is destroying the world and bottom line man kind?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re:Why do you hate capitalism? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Not too long ago, fewer than 10 years ago, people here used to get excited about developments like this and all the new technologies it would enable. Print a monitor or any sort of electronic circuit on a piece of cheap paper for pennies, no more big polluting factories. Download and print a cell phone, print a wall size monitor. It's what all the nerds wanted.

      Now nerds want comic book movies and to complain about the doom and gloom of the future. Well good luck with that. The enlightenment is dead, long live romanticism. I hear there's a new zombie move coming out.

    3. Re:Why do you hate capitalism? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why do you hate capitalism?

      because it...
      * enables psychopaths to gain power and bleed your for all your worth
      * has corrupted our government and degraded our rights
      * promotes misinformation
      * is destroying our society
      * is killing our next generation with sugar
      * is killing our ecosystem both on land and water
      * is unsustainable

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    4. Re:Why do you hate capitalism? by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2

      Now nerds want comic book movies and to complain about the doom and gloom of the future. Well good luck with that.

      To be fair, wages have stagnated and lots of people are out of a job.

      It makes perfect sense to be worried about the future, and devote time to complaining and looking for solutions.

      (And not to put too fine a point on it, WE are the smart people in the room. If answers are to come, they will come from forward-looking individuals like us.)

  3. Does that make it a ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... laser printer?

  4. Scientific Article with actual info by esonik · · Score: 3, Informative

    You'd think professional journalists would properly cite even link to the original publication.

    Oussama Mhibik, Sebastien Chenais, Sebastien Forget, Christophe Defranoux and Sebastien Sanaur: Inkjet-printed vertically emitting solid-state organic lasers, J. Appl. Phys. 119, 173101 (2016).

    http://scitation.aip.org/conte...

    1. Re:Scientific Article with actual info by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is the Daily Mail. I don't think this quite gets to the 'professional journalism' level.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  5. Just don't by fyngyrz · · Score: 2

    Do Not Look Into 3D Printer With Remaining Eye

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.