Next-gen quantum computers could be powered using chip with high-energy lasers made 10,000 times smaller

Stanford researchers have built a titanium-sapphire (Ti:Sa) lasers that are 10,000 times smaller than any previous similar device and fit them onto a chip.

Until now, such lasers have cost upwards of $100,000. But with a new approach, outlined June 26 in the journal Nature, scientists believe the cost could drop to $100 per laser.

They also claimed that thousands of lasers could be built onto one four-inch wafer in the future — and the cost per laser could become minimal. These small-scale lasers could be used in future quantum computers, in neuroscience and even in micro-level surgeries.

The experimental laser relies on two crucial processes. First, they ground a sapphire crystal down to a layer just a few hundred nanometers thick. They then fashioned a swirling vortex of tiny ridges, into which they shone a green laser pointer. With each rotation within that vortex, the laser’s intensity increased.

"One of the trickiest parts was the production of the platform," co-first author of the study Joshua Yang, a doctoral candidate at Stanford, told Live Science. "Sapphire is a very tough material. And when you grind it down, oftentimes, it doesn’t like it, it cracks, or it damages what you’re using to try to grind out."

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Once this problem was solved, however, Yang described the process as "smooth sailing." But he was keen to emphasize that while the team was at the starting point they can already "bat with semiconductor laser technology that’s had over a decade to mature."