A new algorithm slices the computing time required to refine designs of surface-emitting lasers from 12 hours to 30 seconds.
Lasers are everywhere.
They transmit data, video, and voices around the world at the speed of light. Yet for all their versatility and power, existing lasers are as clunky and crude as the vacuum tubes that once powered radios. That's why researchers such as Karl Hess , a physicist and electrical engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Beckman Institute, are designing lasers so small that a million can fit on a child's fingernail. People want to use these lasers to construct backbones like the Internet that can handle gigabyte applications. To optimize the design of these lasers, though, requires rigorous computing.