Technically a laser amplifies light, but a new “laser” discovery actually uses electrical current. Although it is not the first “laser” to use electricity in this manner, it is the most efficient by far.
For the same light that a normal laser produces, this new breakthrough only takes 1/250th of the same energy. But, it is actually even more impressive than that!
Here is a quote from the original article: “The beam they demonstrated incidentally was ultraviolet and required relatively next to nothing in terms of power – less than a millionth of a watt. A laser pen usually requires less than 1 mWatt, or one thousandth of a watt. ”
The future looks bright when it comes to new light sources. The above quotes is actually revealing that their uv “laser” is 1000 times more efficient at producing light from electricity than other lasers.
We’re not sure what their intended applications are but obviously this kind of discovery can pave a whole new way for efficient light sources in the future.
For more info: http://rt.com/news/164460-polarition-laser-less-power/