In A Femtosecond: Chunlei Guo

Wednesday, June 03, 2009



Yeah...I have no idea what a Femtosecond laser is either or what I would even do with one, but Chunlei Guo from the University of Rochester does and apparently it'll make our days brighter...err...cheaper:

Enter Chunlei Guo from the University of Rochester, who has helped discover a process which could morph a traditional incandescent light bulb into a beacon of burning light without using nearly as much energy as before. In fact, his usage of the femtosecond laser pulse -- which creates a "unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament" -- could enable a bulb to increase output efficiency in order to emit 100-watts worth of light while sucking down less than 60-watts of power. Per usual, there's no telling when this new hotness is likely to hit the commercial realm, but one's thing for sure: we bet GE's paying attention.
I'll take a 100 please.