Optics markets gear up for growth

17 Jun 2002

Blue lasers will drive optical-data-storage, telecoms and displays markets.

US-based analyst Frost and Sullivan has predicted that blue lasers and light-emitting diodes will be crucial to advanced technologies such as displays, optical-data-storage and telecoms. With these markets poised for significant growth, blue-laser devices are expected to span a diverse range of applications, including indoor lighting and next-generation digital versatile disks.

"Fast-growing electronic applications from movies on the Internet to on-line libraries ensure that we can never have enough storage density," said a company spokesperson. "[However] optical storage provided by blue lasers will solve these capacity and portability problems."

Recent breakthroughs in growing crystals of semiconductor materials have fuelled this laser technology. Another potential application includes progressively accurate laser surgery.