A World of Color: Investigating the engineering of solid-state lasers

Interns

Megan Fu, Austin Chen, Santiago Herrera, Aparna Prabakaran

Project Description

Lasers are used in everyday life; from barcode scanners, to printers, to military instruments, they can serve many useful purposes. Lasers can be defined as semiconductors, or materials whose conductivities can be adjusted in order to emit light. Green light-emitting lasers are particularly significant due to their ability to penetrate through the skin, allowing devices to safely measure heart rates and oxygen levels. However, it is difficult to achieve the green color as the compounds that are currently used to create it are either hard to manipulate or are energy inefficient. To address this, we altered the chemical formula used to create the semiconductor on the compound Gallium Nitride. First, we created our specific chemical formula and designed our Gallium Nitride semiconductor. Then, we performed three different trials, each with a different temperature, and compared the resulting color, current, and power. The results indicate that we need to further explore the different variables which influence semiconductor creation so that we can make green light more ubiquitous in everyday technology.

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