能發(fā)射激光的隱形眼鏡，要不要去下單！

Scientists have created an ultrathin, flexible film that can emit laser light - and successfully tested it on a contact lens, demonstrating the possibility of laser eye-beams.

科學(xué)家創(chuàng)造出了一種可以發(fā)射出激光的超薄柔性薄膜，并成功地利用隱形眼鏡進(jìn)行了測試，證明了激光眼的可能性。

Before you rush out and buy a Cyclops-style visor, it's not even close to powerful enough to cause damage. Instead, the researchers say, the technology has potential for use as wearable security tags, or even as a type of laser barcode.

在你沖出去下訂單之前，我們先說好，它的功率太小不足以造成實際的傷害。相反，研究人員說，這項技術(shù)有可能用作可穿戴的安全標(biāo)簽，甚至成為一種激光條碼。

The membranes containing the material are less than a thousandth of a millimetre thick, and flexible, which means they can easily be stuck to, or embedded into, polymer banknotes, or the soft plastics used for flexible contact lenses.

這種的薄膜厚度小于千分之一毫米，并且具有柔韌性，這意味著它們可以很容易地粘貼或嵌入到塑質(zhì)鈔票上或柔性隱形眼鏡上。

The laser is created by stamping nanoscale gratings into thin polymer membranes that are grown on glass substrates, Neil Savage described for IEEE Spectrum.These membranes can then be placed on other surfaces.When illuminated by another laser, it emits laser light of its own, with wavelengths between 420 and 700 nm, as defined by the structure and material of the grating, which can be adjusted to emit specific wavelengths, and even to emit light like the series of ones and zeroes in a barcode.

Neil Savage對IEEE Spectrum描述說，激光是通過將納米級光柵壓印到生長在玻璃基底上的薄聚合物膜上產(chǎn)生的。這些薄膜可以依附在其他物體的表面上。當(dāng)被另一部激光器照射時，它發(fā)射出自己的激光，其波長在420-700nm之間，由光柵的結(jié)構(gòu)和材料所決定。可以調(diào)節(jié)發(fā)射出特定波長的激光，并且甚至可以發(fā)射出類似于光條形碼中的代表1和0的光信號。

This laser light is very low-powered, only around a nanowatt. That's a billionth of a watt - not remotely enough to power a small light. But it's enough to be picked up by a scanner - and would be excellent for security tags, the research team said.

這種激光器的功耗非常低，僅為納瓦級。這是一瓦特的十億分之一——遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不足以啟動一小盞電燈。但是這足以被掃描儀采集到，而且對于安全標(biāo)簽來說是恰到好處。

"It would be very difficult for someone else to make a laser that had exactly the same wavelength," senior researcher and physicist Malte Gather of the University of St Andrews told Spectrum.

“其他人想要制造具有完全相同的波長的激光器，將是非常困難的。”圣安德魯斯大學(xué)的高級研究員兼物理學(xué)家Malte Gather告訴Spectrum。

To test it, the research team integrated the membrane into a contact lens, which they stuck onto the excised eyeball of a cow - popular for this sort of testing for its structural similarity to the human eye, coupled with easy availability.

為了測試它，研究團(tuán)隊將薄膜整合到了一片隱形眼鏡中，它們粘在了來自一只牛的被切除的眼球上——這種實驗樣本與人眼的結(jié)構(gòu)相似，很受科學(xué)家的歡迎，而且非常容易獲取。

They also stuck one of the membranes onto one of the researcher's thumbnails. Both membranes produced a laser beam - and, importantly, the contact lens laser consistently remained within the safe zone for repeated eye exposure.

他們還將其中一瓣膜片黏在了研究人員的拇指指甲上。兩處膜均產(chǎn)生了激光束——重要的是，隱形眼鏡中的激光，確實會接觸到眼睛，但卻始終保持在安全的能級內(nèi)。

"We have demonstrated the fabrication and operation of ultra-thin, substrate-less organic lasers with extreme mechanical flexibility and lightweight," the researchers wrote in their paper. "These physical properties, combined with the low lasing threshold and the ability to generate unique output spectra, allows the application of membrane lasers as security label that can be applied to a wide range of substrates including banknotes, contact lenses, and fingernails."

研究人員在他們的論文中寫道：“我們已經(jīng)展示了具有極端機械靈活性和輕量級的超薄無基底有機激光器的制造和操作過程。這些物理特性與低激態(tài)閾值和產(chǎn)生獨特輸出光譜的能力相結(jié)合，可以將膜激光器作為安全標(biāo)簽應(yīng)用于廣泛的基材，包括紙幣，隱形眼鏡和指甲。”

The researchers also suggest it could move from prototype to mass production without much effort.

研究人員還表示，可以毫不費力地從實驗原型轉(zhuǎn)向工業(yè)大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)。

"By combining recently developed roll-to-roll nanoimprint and organic ink jet printing technology, membrane lasers could be mass-produced with high reproducibility and at low cost."

“通過結(jié)合最近開發(fā)的卷對卷納米壓印和有機噴墨印刷技術(shù)，膜激光器可以被批量生產(chǎn)，它們的可重復(fù)性良好，成本低廉。”

The research has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

該研究已發(fā)表在Nature Communications雜志上。