By Peter Weiss
Like poker chips, lasers may someday be molded out of plastic by the millions. A new laser-making method takes a major step in that direction, its Austrian developers say.
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Lasers are devices that emit a coherent beam of light of a single wavelength. Their prices have been coming down over the years, but dirt cheap plastic ones could serve as the heart of mass-produced biomedical and environmental sensors and optical-telecommunications networks, the researchers say. What’s more, unlike the lasers currently available, plastic ones could be flexible.