Scientists create a new laser from jellyfish fluorescent proteins read more at here http://spinonews.com/index.php/component/k2/item/654

For the first time, scientists bring a new study; using fluorescent proteins from jellyfish, which were grown in bacteria, have been used to create a laser.

Malte Gather, a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland said, by repurposing the fluorescent proteins scientists created a polariton laser that operates at room temperature powered by nanosecond pulses.

Gather said, the fluorescent proteins have been used as a marker in living cells or living tissue before, but now the researchers have started using them as a material. This work shows for the first time that their molecular structure is actually favorable for operation at high brightness.   

Gather and colleagues create genetically engineered E. coli bacteria to produce enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP). Researchers filled optical micro cavities with this protein before subjecting them to optical pumping, where nanosecond flashes of light are used to bring the system up to the required energy, to create laser light.

After reaching the threshold for polariton lasing, pumping more energy into the device resulted in conventional lasing. Conventional lasers create their intense beams by taking advantage of the fact that photons can be amplified by excited atoms in the laser's called “gain medium”.

Polariton laser light is nearly indistinguishable from conventional laser light, but the physical process that creates it relies on a quantum phenomenon to amplify the light.

Repeated absorption and re-emission of photons by atoms or molecules in the gain medium gives rise to quasi particles called polaritons. In certain conditions before the energy level required for conventional lasing is reached the polaritons synchronize into a joint quantum state called a condensate, which gives off laser light.

One of the key advantages of the new approach is that the light-emitting part of the protein molecules is protected within a nanometer-scale cylindrical shell, which prevents them from interfering with each other.                                              

This makes the new study could also potentially be implanted in the human body for medical applications.