Lasers light up economy

The stuff of science fiction movies, lasers, have been glorified as weapons and precision cutting tools. But truth is even more exciting than science fiction, with researchers in Colorado using lasers to speed up the microprocessors used in video-game consoles, improve medical practices and create higher-resolution microscopes.

Miloš Popović, an assistant professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering, and his team at the University of Colorado Boulder are using photonics, or concentrated light waves, to make more energy-efficient ways for microprocessors to communicate with the memory on microchips that are used in everything from cell phones and computers…