A new technology of ultra-high-quality color laser printing has been developed, which does not require the use of ink or toner

The images shown in the second image shown here do not look like masterpieces of fine art. However, if we take into account the fact that the width of each image is approximately equal to the thickness of the human hair, it becomes clear that they contain such a number of pixels per unit area, which is many times greater than the resolution of the best of modern screens.

The creation of the images with record-breaking resolution today is the result of a new technology of color laser printing developed at the time by the team of Anders Kristensen from the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen. “Shooting” by a laser beam on the surface of a material covered by an array of nanoscale plastic columns, leads to changes in the nature of the surface, which begins to reflect light with a certain wavelength.

The laser beam heats the top of each nanoscale column to a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius. At this temperature for a few nanoseconds, the germanium layer covering the top of the columns is melted and changes shape. Controlling the power of the laser allows to cause different degrees of melting and, as a result, to turn the columns into pixels reflecting light with a certain wild wave. Exposure to low-energy pulses of the laser allows to paint the surface in blue, and increased power leads to the coloring of the surface in yellow and red colors.

Each of the columns has a diameter of several tens of nanometers, which allows to place tens of thousands of columns on a square centimeter of surface area. The images shown here were printed with a resolution of 127,000 points per inch. By comparison, the resolution of the iPhone 7 screen is 326 points per inch.

Unfortunately, the range of colors created in this way does not shine brightness and richness of colors. In this way, it is impossible to get green and shades of blue, and the red color created is very dim. However, researchers are already thinking about replacing germanium with silicon, which has a slightly different spectrum of light reflection. And with the help of silicon it will be possible to get green color, which, in turn, will allow printing bright full-color images.

The new laser printing technology is unlikely to ever appear as a desktop printer. But it has prospects for facilitating the lives of designers, fashion designers and people of other creative specialties. For example, automakers will be able to make on one conveyor belt parts of the interior of the cabin, which will then be painted with a laser in the necessary color. In addition, the new laser printing technology will allow to make adjustments, of course, within certain limits, to the already printed imag

es.Source:http://www.dailytechinfo.org