IIT-M researchers generate lasers from carrots

This first-of-its-kind development in the world promises significant advancements in scientific and industrial research on optical spectroscopy and sensing.

‘’Being very robust and highly reliable, this ‘kitchen laser’ has very good and linear response for temperature which could be used for temperature sensing too,” a release from IIT-M on Monday said. Being completely natural and fully bio-compatible, this system could be used with other bio-entities for their sensing based on the proposed laser.

Lasers were ubiquitous sources of light with extraordinary properties such as high degree of directionality and sharpness.

They were indispensable in a dazzling range of products and technologies including communication, lithography, medicine, military operations, scientific research, engineering, displays and data storage.

In this case, a particular class of lasers called ‘random lasers’ have been demonstrated in carrots where a Raman process plays a central role along with the cellulose network, the release said.

There is now a move towards development of green, sustainable materials for various applications, including in photonics, said Prof C Vijayan of IIT-M Physics department. The need for green photonic technologies is obvious in the current times where sustainability, bio-compatibility and degradability are of paramount importance, he added.