(PhysOrg.com) -- “Quantum wells have been instrumental in telecommunications, enabling light amplification,” Patanjali Kambhampati tells PhysOrg.com, “but theory has suggested that a very small - colloidal - quantum dot could amplify light even better than a quantum well. There have been problems, however, in getting lasers to work properly with colloidal quantum dots, so focus has shifted to other types of structures.”