GaN Laser Diode Brightens Hopes for a Long‐Lived, Short‐Wavelength Device

Researchers at Nichia Chemical Industries in Tbkushima, Japan, reported in January that they had succeeded in getting a diode based on gallium nitride to lase at a wavelength of 417 nanometers, giving forth a blueviolet light. (See the figure on page 19.) Since then, at the International Symposium on Blue Lasers and Light‐Emitting Diodes held in Chiba, Japan, last month, a team from Meijo University in Nagoya announced GaN‐based diode lasers operating both in the blue (402 nm) and ultraviolet (376 nm).