Boffins at MIT have found a new fibre that can emit light along its length in any direction may herald flexible 3-D displays and medical tools that activate therapeutic compounds with bursts of light.

According to MIT the new fibre was developed by Yoel Fink's group emits blue laser light only at a precisely controlled location. Most light emitters, from candles to light bulbs to computer screens, look the same from any angle. But in a paper published this week on the Nature Photonics website, MIT researchers report the development of a new light source  whose brightness can be controllably varied for different viewers.

This allows 3-D displays woven from flexible fibres that project different information to viewers’ left and right eyes. The fibre could also enable medical devices that can be threaded into narrow openings to irradiate diseased tissue, selectively activating therapeutic compounds while leaving healthy tissue untouched.

The paper is the work of seven boffins  affiliated with MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), including Yoel Fink, a professor of materials science and electrical engineering.

More here.