This week's EYE ON NPI has frickin' ceramics with frickin' lasers on its head - it's a Wurth Elektronik Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) infrared laser emitter (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/w/wurth-electronics/wl-vcsl-vertical-cavity-surface-laser) . These pick-and-placeable components look a little like large LEDs, and they sort-of are. Except unlike LEDs, the light wavelength is very narrow band wavelength AND it is 'coherent' light (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherence_(physics)) which means that the emitted waves of light are all in sync.

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