European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 10, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Not by Peter Coy associated press they find things in the dark. They Check groceries play concertos and perform Eye surgery. They Are faster than a speeding Bullet and could do serious damage to a locomotive. Lasers acronym for Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation have been the Superman of the electromagnetic spectrum Ever since 1960. That was when 33-year-old Theodore h. Maiman of Hughes aircraft co. Built the first one from a Pink Ruby As they near their 30th anniversary though lasers have switched from comic Book novelties to necessities that preoccupy the technology giants of the United states Europe and Japan. Lasers Are not Only in compact disc players and bar code scanners at checkout counters they Are in the phone system carrying Long distance Calls Over hair thin Glass fibres. Now lasers Are poised to take a quantum leap. Tiny devices called quantum lasers Herald an Era in which lasers will be More Central to the technology underlying daily life. Quantum lasers and their cousins quantum transistors could make possible supercomputers the size of baseballs and television screens of unparalleled clarity that hang on the Wall like a painting experts say. Quantum devices Are the wave of the future. Almost All of the research that goes on involves quantum effects in some Way or another said David v. Lang director of the solid state electronics research lab at at Tbell labs. Lasers Are what some scientists Call a killer technology compact discs Are killing Vinyl records for example and nobody uses Copper anymore for Long distance phone lines. And the japanese Are putting the american invented killer to use effectively. Japan s dominance of mass Market electronics gives its companies unmatched expertise in making things Small cheap and reliable. For example japanese companies dominate the Market for cd players which use More lasers than any other product it s a byproduct of the japanese decision to invest in consumer electronics. They la find an application and find the technology to solve it said Henry Kressel an analyst at . Warburg Pincus & co. Inc. In new York. Japan s twin towers of strength in lasers and semiconductors could allow it to build the first computers in which chips Are connected by quantum laser beams instead of electricity. At at Tbell laboratories one of America s Foremost laser research centers Alan Huang is hoping 1o leapfrog the japanese. But the Competition is Tough for an Early Model of his optical computer he had to use a Diode laser he took from a japanese made cd player. A laser is a directed Needle of Light purified to one particular color or Wavelength. In contrast Ordinary Light is a Jumble of Many wavelengths flying in All directions. In a cascading effect photons of Light strike an energized material and stimulate the release of More photons in a synchronized pattern. The most powerful lasers Are being used to attempt to fuse the nuclei of atoms in flashes of Energy a million times More intense than a nuclear blast. Sustained nuclear fusion could be a source of clean plentiful and cheap electricity. At the other end of the scale Are semiconductor in Superman Diode lasers no bigger than a Grain of Salt the kind used in compact disc players and the phone system. One exotic subspecies is the quantum laser. Scientists build quantum lasers by Spray painting atoms in a layer cake of incredibly thin layers some of which have impurities added. The impure layers act like Walls to trap electrons. Confining so Many electrons and their receptors holes to a tiny space makes it easier to get a Cascade of photons going creating laser Light. Quantum lasers Are More precise and require less current and their efficiency in converting electricity to Light is unmatched. Optical surgeons have used lasers since 1970 to Weld detached Retinas. Later came other medical uses like excising tutors and eliminating cataracts. Today lasers snaked into the body on optical fibres clean arteries and destroy urinary tract stones. Lasers Are used to make pinholes in the nipples of baby bottles study components of car exhaust and form the three dimensional holograms used on credit cards and maybe someday Dollar Bills. The military has Star wars designs for free Electron lasers and powerful a Ray lasers which physicist Edward Teller has suggested could be triggered by a nuclear blast. Laser weapons would most Likely be mounted in space people tried to shoot laser beams through the sky and what they discovered was fog and rain said William Bridges of California Institute of technology. Quantum Well lasers fill Only one Niche but an important one. Their Speed and efficiency makes them Ideal for rapid fire communication initially for Long distance Calls later for links Between neighbouring computers and eventually for the links Between chips in computers said Robert Melcher a laser expert for ism in Zurich Switzerland. I be been in the laser game for 25 years now said one researcher Ross a. Mcfarlane of Hughes research laboratories in Malibu Calif. That quantum lasers is where the future  magic knife surgery by Bernard Schoenburg associated press Jay maker operates in a Hospital his laser a magic knife that seals off blood vessels kills bacteria and reduces pain. Philip Morris who works in an outpatient surgery Center uses a laser to remove cancer from breasts and sends patients Home hours later with so Little pain that they Only take one or two Little pain  the two Are among a growing number of doctors who strongly advocate using lasers focused beams of Light of a single color or Wavelength for surgery. They also illustrate a growing debate Over what Type of laser is Best. Maker chief of surgery at Grant Hospital in Chicago uses a laser called a yag Short for yttrium aluminium Garnet. Its beam prevents tissue from bleeding by heat sealing cells As they Are Cut. The beam can travel through a flexible Cord and in maker s Model of Choice a pen like instrument directs the beam through crystalline tips that touch the surgical surface. That Means he says that surgeons who Learned to respond to feedback from Scalpel touching tissue make an easy transition. Morris at the surgery Center in Santa Rosa Calif., uses a Carbon dioxide laser which heats a thin layer of tissue until cells actually explode or disintegrate. It also seals off Small blood vessels. Maker says a Carbon dioxide laser where the beam travels Only in straight lines and must be turned by mirrors and where the beam touches skin but the instrument tip has no Contact with the tissue is far less accurate. You re shooting pretty much like target practice. It s a very crude Way of doing a very Fine surgery like  Morris disagrees though he admits that a yag is much More  he said a yag beam which reacts with red substances like blood is better for coagulation but the beam can penetrate deeper than what you can see. So the next Day a Guy might blow a Hole out of his stomach or  the Wavelength of a co2 laser makes it heat water and cells Are 90 percent water he said. But even As one cell is disintegrated by the beam you Don t Hurt the tissue right next  or. Leonard Cerullo an associate professor of surgery at Northwestern University school of Medicine and director of the Chicago neurosurgical Center at Columbus Hospital said you really have to match the instrument to the surgical need. I think it s a mistake to say one size fits  despite difference Over types of lasers maker and Morris agree that laser surgery in Many ways tops traditional methods of operating. Or. Ellet Drake Secretary of the american society for laser Medicine and surgery in Wausau wis., estimates that More than a million surgical procedures were done in the past year in the United states with lasers but he does t envision the Scalpel being replaced in the foreseeable future. Lasers should be used said Drake a cardiologist when they either do something better or do it exclusively. Why use a $100,000 apparatus when you can get by with a $10 apparatus Albert Einstein first conceived the laser More than 50 years ago but it was 1960 before a usable one was built Drake said. Ophthalmologists were the first doctors to use them widely and about 90 percent in that Field use lasers to treat ailments including detached Retinas glaucoma Retinitis and some cataracts he said. Most ophthalmologists use argon lasers which Are lower in Energy than yag or co2 models and the beams can pass through Clear Eye tissue to heat the blood Rich Retina. He said that lasers also Are becoming More popular with obstetricians and gynaecologists with applications from dissolving venereal warts to breaking up blockages in fallopian tubes. In dermatology lasers have proven to be the Best tools to lighten port wine stain birthmarks. In cardiology lasers on the ends of flexible tubes can Clear blockages from arteries. And urologists can use them to break up kidney stones or Cut out cancer from bladders. Or. Francis l Esperance an ophthalmologist at Columbia presbyterian medical Center in new York City says a new laser could be used to reshape the Retina and eliminate the need for corrective eyeglasses or Contact lenses. Page 16 the stars and stripes Friday february 10,1989