alt.hn

4/16/2026 at 8:28:10 AM

Any Color You Like: NIST Scientists Create 'Any Wavelength' Lasers

 https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2026/04/any-color-you-nist-scientists-create-any-wavelength-lasers-tiny-circuits

by geox

4/16/2026 at 12:11:54 PM

LaserCube [0] uses additive color mixing using three primary laser diodes (RGB) aligned using dichroic mirrors (which reflect specific wavelengths while allowing others to pass through) so that they exit the aperture as a single, combined beam. Alvanometer scanners tuned to 30,000 points per second is fast enough to trick the eyes.

The complexity of the system would decrease with an anycolor laser.

The only other attempt I have seen that is similar is Seb Lee-Delisle who created a project called "Laser Tempest," which involved hacking the original code of the 1981 Atari classic to run on a high-powered RGB (white light) laser projector. By bypassing the traditional CRT monitor and sending the vector data directly to the laser's galvanometers, he was able to project the game at a massive scale onto walls, buildings, and large screens at various technology and arts festivals.

[0] https://www.laseros.com

by mycall

4/16/2026 at 3:03:16 PM

Combining red, green and blue tricks our eyes into perceiving any color that we can perceive, but it's a very different thing to make a laser that can output any wavelength, like they do here.

by qnleigh

4/16/2026 at 4:52:01 PM

The Laser Tempest sounds neat but I cannot find it, could you provide a link?

by emchammer

4/19/2026 at 10:30:48 PM

I only saw it once at a vintage computer expo around 2002. I don't have any more information than that.

by mycall

4/16/2026 at 12:29:14 PM

Free research article:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08092

TLDR:

This is not a new kind of laser.

They have developed a method of growing on semiconductor wafers a kind of crystal with non-linear optical properties (Ta2O5, tantalum oxide, like in the tantalum electrolytic capacitors).

With a non-linear crystal, there are many variants of transforming the color of a laser, e.g. by generating harmonics, by non-linear mixing light from lasers of different colors or by pumping with the laser a parametric oscillator that produces a different color from that of the laser.

You may be able to produce almost any color, but not with a single device, and the energy efficiency of producing various colors can be very different.

This is similar to how green laser pointers work. Because unlike for red or for blue, there are no good green semiconductor lasers, the green laser pointers have an infrared laser whose output is converted into green light by a non-linear crystal.

by adrian_b

4/16/2026 at 12:06:17 PM

I hope this has future applications in laser projectors

by btreecat

4/16/2026 at 12:46:07 PM

Laser projectors already include green lasers made by the same principle, but made from separate semiconductor lasers and non-linear crystals.

With this technology, which integrates the non-linear crystal with the semiconductor laser, it may become possible to make cheaper laser projectors, either by making an integrated green laser, or perhaps even an integrated triple laser, for all 3 primaries, but the difference in cost will not be great, because the green laser is a rather small fraction of the total cost (though it may be more expensive than the red and blue lasers together).

by adrian_b

4/18/2026 at 10:51:31 AM

Thank you for a great explanation!

by btreecat

4/16/2026 at 10:43:02 AM

hopefully they get a license from Pantone

by cyanydeez