Researchers in California has developed a ‘Spaser’ that can operate at room temperature.

The fact that it operates at room temperature means that the technology has passed a major hurdle, as it was not previously clear if they could be operated at anything above around -250 degrees C.

Normally lasers work by amplifying light, but spasers amplify particles called surface plasmons. Plasmons can be confined to much smaller areas than normal light lasers, before being converted into normal light waves.

This means the technology will be useful for creating miniaturized  optical circuits that might operate at 100 times faster than today’s fastest electronic circuits. It may also be possible to use spasers to create microchips with features smaller than 20nm - todays chips are around 30 - 40 nm and are approaching the limits of normal lasers. They could also squash more data onto DVD’s and hard drives.

This technology should be ready to start using in commercial applications within two years.