Seeing the light: Laser-based visible light communications

Summary

KAUST Professor Boon Ooi, Nobel laureate Shuji Nakamura, and colleagues are collaborating on laser-based solid state lighting (SSL) and visible light communications (VLC). The team is using gallium nitride (GaN) to develop high-performance semiconductor laser devices, leveraging nanofabrication techniques at KAUST. They demonstrated that their laser-based VLC system is over 20 times faster than LED-based Li-Fi systems. Why it matters: This research could enable faster, more energy-efficient data transmission using visible light, with potential applications in both terrestrial and underwater communication.