Nanosys Announces the Licensing of Technology for Nanowire-based Nanolasers

Palo Alto, CA - (September 30, 2002). Nanosys Incorporated announced today that it has signed an agreement with The Regents of the University of California for the exclusive license of semiconductor nanowire-based nanolasers. The research which led to this breakthrough was conducted by Dr. Peidong Yang, Scientific Founder of Nanosys and one of the world’s foremost experts on nanoscale materials and electro-optics.

The lasers were developed by growing semiconductor nanowires which are ten thousand times thinner than a human hair. Among some potential applications of this technology are high density information storage, high definition display, photonics, optocommunications and chemical analysis on microchips. This technology could even enable the development of extreme-resolution nano-lithography for next-generation microprocessor fabrication. The laser can be tuned to emit light of different wavelengths from the infrared to the deep ultraviolet by simply changing the diameter or composition of the nanowire.

The techniques used for growing these nanowire lasers were first reported in the June 8, 2001 issue of Science. Nanowire based lasers represents a dramatic improvement over gallium arsenide and gallium nitride lasers that are today’s leading solid state lasers. Current lasers are made of multilayer thin films and are several micrometers in size. The nanowire laser developed by Dr. Yang is about 1000 times smaller, allowing extremely localized optical illumination. According to Dr Yang, “At this preliminary stage of development, these nanolasers have great potential to compete with the gallium nitride blue laser in terms of ease of manufacture, brightness, and much smaller dimensions.”

Nanosys Founder and Director of Business Development Dr. Stephen Empedocles commented, “This exclusive license will enable us to pursue near term products such as ultra-high resolution photolithography and laser powered biochips. It will also pave the way for further research into optical communications and all optical computing.” Empedocles added, “This license is one of many we have signed with institutions such as Harvard University and the Regents of the University of California, and will further cement our position as the industry-dominant intellectual property estate in the field of nanotechnology.”

About Professor Peidong Yang

Dr. Yang is a leading expert in the fields of nanomaterials, optoelectronics, and nanoelectronics. Dr. Yang is a Scientific Founder of Nanosys and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley. He has been awarded the Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, NSF CAREER Award, the 3M Faculty Award, American Chemical Society ExxonMobile Solid State Chemistry Award, Hellman Award, and the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Research Innovation Award and Beckman Young Investigator Award. Professor Yang completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Harvard University in Professor Charlie Lieber’s laboratory and carried out Post Doctoral work at the University of California- Santa Barbara.

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