Two University engineering professors have developed a new laser, which can process mass amounts of information at an unprecedented rate.

Milton Feng and Nick Holonyak Jr., professors of Electrical and Computer Engineering, combined their expertise to develop the idea for a new transistor, which would combine the traditional electrical current with a laser beam.

A traditional transistor enables electrical devices to control the flow of electricity, but is limited in speed because the device only has two inputs and one output. This new transistor laser can process information at the speed of light.

“We realized we immediately had something really important,” Feng said. “This may be one of the biggest and important inventions of the College of Engineering.”

In 2004, the Department of Defense funded their research with a four-year grant worth $6.5 million. The department is interested in processing mass amounts of confidential information quickly and securely, Feng said.

Feng and Holonyak’s project is a part of the University’s Center for Hyper-Uniform Nano-Photonic Technologies in conjunction with the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Project Agency. The center is one of just two across the nation working for the defense department developing new ideas using photonics. The California Institute of Technology is also working on related photonics research.

The two centers beat out 28 others around the country vying for the coveted government grants.

The transistor laser uses both the light from the laser and electricity to process information more effectively.

“It’s like having two more pairs of hands,” Feng said of the transistor laser’s efficiency.

“Imagine how much service you could provide your customers,” said Keh-Yung Cheng, the director or the Center for Hyper-Uniform Nano-Photonic Technologies and a University professor.

Feng and Holonyak came up with the initial idea for the transistor laser two years ago during a casual conversation, Feng said.

Feng was describing his research project – a 700-gigahertz world-fast transistor – to Holonyak over coffee in his office when Holonyak abruptly asked if he could see light coming from the transistor, Feng said. The idea of a transistor emitting light was a possibility never before researched.

Despite initial doubt that he would be able to detect light, Feng listened to his older colleague. Feng then experimented on his own, trying to find any light possibly emitting from his transistor, but could not. Two months later, though, with a different detector, he discovered light emitting from the transistor.

Holonyak’s previous research produced LED’s, or light emitting diodes, now a $300 billion industry, in 1962, Feng said. The LED lights are replacing traditional lighting and neon lights because they conserve energy.

Cheng said after any new development there is always speculation for potential applications, but he believes after a few years the transistor laser will be one of the most important inventions since the original transistor.

“The technological benefits that this could lead to are outstanding,” said Daniel Winter, sophomore in Engineering. “I am proud to hear that the U of I is the leading researcher.”

Sitting barefoot in his office on the fourth floor of the Coordinated Science Laboratory, Feng, who earned a Ph. D. from the University in 1979, spoke excitedly, but briefly about his current and future research.

“What is important is to work hard, and work with someone smarter than you,” he said, laughing.

“And it’s real,” Feng said about their research. “It’s not fiction.”