News archive for January 2014

New laser that could help find smaller planets

A team of Heriot-Watt scientists is developing a new kind of laser that could help astronomers to find small, ‘Earth-like’ planets outside our solar system or detect the presence of hazardous chemicals at a safe distance.

The team is working as part of an international consortium that’s secured €2m to develop optical parametric oscillator (OPO) frequency comb lasers which will deliver a far greater degree of accuracy than has been previously possible.

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