ONE minute it鈥檚 a laser, the next it has dissolved away. A new postage stamp-sized device could be injected into the body to help with medical imaging. After use, its non-toxic materials would be absorbed by the body.
Traditional lasers amplify light using mirrors on either side of a special material, releasing laser light through one of the mirrors. The new device, created by Yang-Fang Chen at the National Taiwan University in Taipei and his colleagues, bounces light between closely packed zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles instead.
The nanoparticles collide to produce scatterings of light, like sun streaming through clouds, doing away with the need for bulky mirrors.
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The particles are packed into a tiny polymer compartment that dissolves in water after 40 minutes (ACS Nano, ).
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭iny laser vanishes in a little water鈥�