Mirrorless Laser: A New Light Source

Mirrorless Laser: A New Light Source

A team of physicists from the University of Innsbruck and Harvard University has proposed a new way to generate laser light: a laser without mirrors.

Their study shows that quantum emitters spaced at subwavelength distances can synchronize their photon emission to produce a bright, narrow-band light beam, even without an optical cavity.

Passive emitters can enhance light emission due to strong dipole-dipole interatomic interactions, allowing for spectral narrowing of the emitted radiation.

In conventional lasers, mirrors stimulate coherent emission from excited atoms or molecules, but in the new "mirrorless" concept, atoms interact directly through their electromagnetic dipole fields.

Atoms interact directly through their own electromagnetic dipole fields given that interatomic spacing is smaller than the emitted light's wavelength.

Author's summary: Physicists propose a mirrorless laser concept.

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University of Innsbruck University of Innsbruck — 2025-10-28

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