Lasers and Stuff

Scientists at Harvard have developed some semiconductor laser improvements.  Instead of using complex optics to focus the light from semiconductor lasers, they use "a plasmonic collimator, consisting of an aperture and a periodic pattern of sub-wavelength grooves, directly on the facet of a quantum cascade laser emitting at a wavelength of ten microns, in the invisible part of the spectrum known as the mid-infrared where the atmosphere is transparent."

Yeah, basically they added some small stuff to the surface of the semiconductor that will eventually cut down on the amount of optics needed to use the lasers.  It will probably lead to cheaper disc drives (CD, DVD, BR, etc.), laser printers, barcode readers, and some new devices making use of the lasers in the future.  Cool stuff.

Also, some new information about the Aurora Borealis has been discovered.

And there is a really cool picture from Hubble of very distant galaxies viewed through a gravitational lens.