Aerosol-based coherent random laser

We demonstrate coherent random lasing from an aerosol of dye-doped microdroplets in air. The aerosol is in the form of a linear array of polydisperse, arbitrarily shaped, and randomly spaced microdroplets with average dimensions of about 30 μm. Upon optical excitation, ultranarrow lasing modes were observed in the emission along the axis of the linear array, while the transverse emission exhibited intrascatterer resonance peaks. Direct spatiospectral imaging and lasing threshold studies confirmed the origin of the lasing peaks to be from spatial modes that extended over the array of the polydisperse microdroplets.     

Lasing action of active-particles dispersed in microdroplets and its enhanced characteristics by highly scattering intralipid-10% mixture

The first laser action of active-particles of 1–2 m in diameter, red fluorescent-powder (FP), dispersed in nonactive (nonlasing) 100 m-sized liquid microdroplets is reported. Lasing characteristics of FP-containing microdroplets by mixing Intralipid-10% as highly scattering turbid media are also described. Well-defined lasing thresholds can be confirmed from the FP-dispersed pure microdroplets, and lowered lasing threshold along with enhanced lasing emission is achieved by appropriately mixing the Intralipid-10% solution. Lasing threshold in these microdroplets can be determined not through the spectral narrowing features but through the input–output data. We believe that these new microdroplet configurations offer one of the new categories of lasing media and they seem also to simulate to some biological pigments or organelles contained in cells and small tissues.     

Synthesis, morphology and random laser action of ZnO nanostructures

Three-dimensional (3-D) ZnO random-wall nanostructures and one-dimensional (1-D) ZnO nanorods were prepared on silicon substrates by a simple solid-vapour phase thermal sublimation technique. Optical pumped random lasing has been observed in the ZnO random-wall arrays with a threshold intensity of 0.38 MW/cm² in the emission wavelength from 380 to 395 nm. The optical gain was attributed to the closed-loop scattering and light amplification of the ZnO random-wall. The experimental result suggests that the morphology of nanostructure is the key factor to effect random lasing.     

Optical-gain enhancement of carbosilane dendrimer containing fluorescein groups in the periphery

In this article, a carbosilane dendrimer functionalized in the periphery with fluorescein units was prepared, and the optical property of the fluorescent dendrimer as gain medium was investigated. It was found that the dendrimer consisted of a methylphenylsilane core with 16 fluorescein units in its periphery. The dendrimer exhibits high optical-gain enhancement in methanol solution and laser emission was observed, which is located at 527 nm above the lasing threshold of 0.9 mJ/pulse.     

Raman lasing near 650 nm from pure water microdroplets on a superhydrophobic surface

We demonstrate Raman lasing near 650 nm in pure water microdroplets located on a superhydrophobic surface. In the experiments, stationary, pure water microdroplets were prepared on a superhydrophobic surface and excited by a pulsed, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm. Intense laser emission was observed at frequencies corresponding to the whispering gallery mode resonances of the water microdroplets near 650 nm where Raman resonances due to OH-stretching bonds of water are located. On–off behavior was observed during lasing and the average temporal inter-burst separation was determined from the time-dependent intensity traces. Our results can find applications in the development of novel organic light emitters for short-haul communication systems, and in the spectroscopic characterization of water microdroplets on a surface.     

Time-resolved photoluminescence on the stimulated emission in polycrystalline ZnO nanoparticles

The detailed room temperature stimulated emission including its optical characteristics from ZnO nanoparticles, which were prepared by a homogenous precipitation method, has been investigated by the time-resolved spectroscopy. The light emission originates from a free exciton recombination at a lower excitation level; the amplified spontaneous emission appears at a moderate excitation level, in which the threshold excitation intensity is 0.65 GW cm⁻². The resonant stimulated emission was observed in ZnO nanoparticles at a higher excitation intensity. Also, the emission lifetime is drastically reduced. Compared to the fluorescence decay curves, the time-resolved spectrum of the stimulated emission suggests the Gaussian-like decay time with only a few of picoseconds. The dynamic processes of lasing behavior and the characteristics of lasing emission in ZnO nanoparticles could provide the information on the crystal quality, the exciton and the lasing action in the particles.     

Spectral narrowing and lasing threshold in self-assembled active photonic crystal

Laser-induced emission from rhodamine-B dye embedded in pseudo band gap opaline photonic crystals is discussed. The photonic crystals are fabricated using rhodamine-B doped polystyrene colloids and show 65% reflectance at the stop band centered at 604 nm. The reflectance of the crystal is increased to 74% by coating with a thin layer of gold. Both spontaneous and stimulated emissions of the dye are observed in the photonic stop band environment by exciting the crystal with the second harmonic (532 nm) of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The thin layer of gold functioned as a high reflecting end mirror to the dye-doped cavity when the crystal is pumped from the substrate side. Angle-dependent suppression at the stop band wavelength is observed in the spontaneous emission of the dye. Spectrally narrow stimulated emission and lasing is achieved in the gold coated dyed PhC at a threshold pump power of 60 mW in a selective direction of 22° from the direction of excitation. By studying emission from several photonic crystals with different number of layers, it is concluded that a sharp threshold for lasing is not observed in uncoated photonic crystals when they contained fewer than 30 ordered layers and lesser than 70% reflectance.     

New biochemical material laser emission in microdroplets using ribo-flavin and its enhancement by mixing highly scattering intralipid medium

New laser emission from a biochemical material, ribo-flavin (vitamin B₂), at 570 nm was observed for the first time in liquid microdroplets pumped at 475 nm using a pulsed optical parametric oscillator. Laser emission spectra from microdroplets containing ribo-flavin in water and glycerol solution exhibit periodic mode structures depending on the microdroplet diameter demonstrating the morphology-dependent resonances. Magnitude enhancement of lasing emission is confirmed experimentally from liquid microdroplets of ribo-flavin solution with appropriate mixture of the fat emulsion Intralipid-10% suspension as highly scattering medium. We believe that such biochemical-soft multiple light scatterer systems may allow a wide range lasing of other bio-materials and even lead to the discovery of some novel species as well as highly sensitive analysis and diagnosis for future applications.     

Quasi-three-dimensional frequency-domain modeling to study size limitations of quantum-dot microdisk lasers

We propose a quasi-three-dimensional frequency-domain model to investigate the lasing modes of an InGaAsP/InP quantum-dot microdisk laser. The model requires a complex susceptibility to solve the electromagnetic fields of the microdisk laser. We use the model to investigate the size limitations of the quantum-dot laser by evaluating its performance through the cavity quality-factor (Q-factor), from which the linewidth can be inferred. We find that higher order modes with high Q-factors (∼ 2.4 × 10⁴) and consequently narrow linewidths (∼ 65 pm) propagating in the 1.5 μm wavelength region can be sustained in a microdisk laser with a radius as small as 1.6 μm and a thickness of 200 nm. Our model can be used to study other types of microdisks provided that the susceptibility of the medium is known.     

The study of a Tm:YLF laser pumped by a Raman shifted Erbium fiber laser at 1678 nm

A Tm:YLF laser pumped by a Raman shifted Er-fiber laser at 1.678 μm was studied at two Tm³⁺ ion concentrations equal to 1.5% and 5%. At output powers up to 460 mW the measured lasing efficiency at a wavelength of ~ 1.93 μm was as high as ~ 50%. The lasing performance was compared with that obtained under pumping by a 792-nm laser diode. The temporal structure of the laser pulse was recorded and the beam propagation factor M² was measured for all pumping conditions.     

Two-photon excitation properties of a class of novel organic dye chloride

We present the two-photon excited (TPE) upconverted fluorescence and lasing efficiencies of a class of new pyridinium chloride having donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) structure. Based on the excitation upon 40 ps laser pulses at 1064 nm, the experimental results showed that: the red-shift of TPE fluorescence emission peaks and the TPE fluorescence lifetime were gradually increased with the enhancement of electron-donating capability of the donor. To a certain extent, the enhanced donor would increase the two-photon pumped (TPP) upconversion lasing efficiencies, but the overlong alkyl chains would result in decreased lasing efficiencies. We could obtain TPE fluorescence lifetime of 754 ps, TPP upconversion lasing efficiency of ∼8.4%, and TPA cross-section of 6.14 × 10⁻⁴⁹cm⁴s/photon in these compounds.     

Tunable double-clad ytterbium-doped fiber laser based on a double-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We have demonstrated an adjustable double-clad Yb³⁺-doped fiber laser using a double-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The laser is adjustable over a range of 40 nm from 1064 nm to 1104 nm. By adjusting the state of the polarization controller, which is placed in the double-pass Mach-Zehnder interferometer, we obtained central lasing wavelengths that can be accurately tuned with controllable spacing between different tunable wavelengths. The laser has a side mode suppression ratio of 42 dB, the 3 dB spectral width is less than 0.2 nm, and the slope efficiencies at 1068 nm, 1082 nm and 1098 nm are 23%, 32% and 26%, respectively. In addition, we have experimentally observed tunable multi-wavelengths lasing output.     

Silicon donor and Stokes terahertz lasers

Two types of lasers based on hydrogen-like impurity-related transitions in bulk silicon operate at frequencies between 1 and 7 THz (wavelength range of 50-230 μm). These lasers operate under mid-infrared optical pumping of n-doped silicon crystals at low temperatures (<30 K). Dipole-allowed optical transitions between particular excited states of group-V substitutional donors are utilized in the first type of terahertz silicon lasers. These lasers have a gain ∼1-3 cm⁻¹ above the laser thresholds (>1 kW cm⁻²) and provide 10 ps-1 μs pulses with a few mW output power on discrete lines. Raman-type Stokes stimulated emission in the range 4.6-5.8 THz has been observed from silicon crystals doped by antimony and phosphorus donors when optically excited by radiation from a tunable infrared free electron laser. The scattering occurs on the 1s(E)→1s(A₁) donor electronic transition accompanied by an emission of the intervalley transverse acoustic g-phonon. The Stokes lasing has a peak power of a few tenths of a mW and a pulse width of a few ns. The Raman optical gain is about 7.4 cm GW⁻¹ and the optical threshold intensity is ∼100 kW cm⁻².     

Tunable distributed feedback lasing with low threshold and high slope efficiency from electroluminescent conjugated polymer waveguide

We present here tunable lasing from holographic distributed feedback (DFB) resonator of electroluminescent conjugated polymer waveguide. Tunable holographic lasing from 560 to 590 nm was simply achieved by rotating a Lloyd-mirror waveguide configuration. Lasing performance for the first order (m = 1) is superior to that for the second order (m = 2). Threshold for lasing for m = 1 is in the range of 25 to 50 μJ/cm²/pulse, which is close to that for amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), and that for m = 2 is larger than 104 μJ/cm²/pulse. For m = 1, slope efficiency of 7.3% including ASE in addition to lasing emission was measured, whereas for m = 2 slope efficiency between 0.1 and 0.2% was measured.     

Spectroscopic and lasing characterisation of a dicarbazovinylene-MEH-benzene dye

The dye 1,4-bis(9-ethyl-3-carbazovinylene)-2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-benzene (abbreviated 2CzV-MEH-B) dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and as neat film is characterised by optical absorption and emission spectroscopy. The absorption and stimulated emission cross-section spectra, the fluorescence quantum distributions, fluorescence quantum yields, degrees of fluorescence polarisation, and fluorescence lifetimes are determined. A lasing characterisation is carried out by pumping with single second harmonic pulses of a mode-locked ruby laser (wavelength 347.15 nm, pulse duration 35 ps). The excited-state absorption at the pump laser wavelength is determined by saturable absorption measurements. Laser oscillation of the dye in THF in a rectangular cell is achieved by transverse pumping using the uncoated cell windows for light feedback. From the emission behaviour around threshold the excited-state absorption cross-section spectrum in the laser active spectral region is extracted. The wave-guided travelling-wave lasing behaviour of the dye as neat film is studied by analysis of the amplification of the transverse pumped spontaneous emission. Surface emitting distributed-feedback lasing was achieved with a neat film on corrugated second-order periodic gratings.     

Continuous-wave broadly tunable Cr:ZnSe laser pumped by a thulium fiber laser

We describe a compact, broadly tunable, continuous-wave (cw) Cr²⁺:ZnSe laser pumped by a thulium fiber laser at 1800 nm. In the experiments, a polycrystalline ZnSe sample with a chromium concentration of 9.5 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ was used. Free-running laser output was around 2500 nm. Output couplers with transmissions of 3%, 6%, and 15% were used to characterize the power performance of the laser. Best power performance was obtained with a 15% transmitting output coupler. In this case, as high as 640 mW of output power was obtained with 2.5 W of pump power at a wavelength of 2480 nm. The stimulated emission cross-section values determined from laser threshold data and emission measurements were in good agreement. Finally, broad, continuous tuning of the laser was demonstrated between 2240 and 2900 nm by using an intracavity Brewster cut MgF₂ prism and a single set of optics.     

Random lasing in ZnO nanocrystals

Nanocrystalline ZnO powders can act as gain and scattering medium in a random laser where the light emission can be strongly amplified. In this work, we compare the luminescence properties of samples with different particle sizes in the regime of linear and nonlinear optics. In the high-excitation regime random lasing is observed in all samples. Here, the lasing threshold depends strongly on the size distribution in the ensemble. Additional characterization of the samples has been done by determining the absolute quantum efficiency of the radiative processes in the powder. The values are in the 10% range and the near-edge luminescence is strongly influenced by the particle sizes. We show that by annealing the nanocrystals coalesce to larger polycrystalline grains, which results in a new emission band at 3.333 eV due to the grain boundaries. Furthermore, it is found that in the annealed samples the threshold for random lasing could be considerably decreased.     

Solar pumped Nd:YAG laser

We report the high efficiency of solar pumped laser. The sunlight is concentrated by the concentrator system, which is composed by the Fresnel lens and the cone-channel condenser. The power density of sunlight concentrated by the concentrator system surpasses the lasing threshold for pumping laser. In the experiment, the sunlight concentrated is coupled into the conical chamber pumping Nd:YAG laser media. Laser output of 3.5 W has been achieved; the collect efficiency is 3.5 W/m². The conversion efficiency is 1.0% from solar power into laser, and the slope efficiency is achieved 1.86%.     

Random laser action in ZnO

We report a direct evidence of random laser in optically pumped ZnO powder. Discrete lasing modes are observed above threshold. The laser emission spectra depend on the angle of observation and are random. The lasing action is attributed to the coherent feedback due to recurrent light scattering in the powder. The lasing threshold intensity depends on the excitation volume. Received: 15 September 1999 / Revised version: 2 February 2000 / Published online: 5 July 2000     

Optically pumped InGaN/GaN MQW lift-off lasers grown on silicon substrates

Chemical etching and removal of the silicon substrate was used for the creation of optically pumped lift-off InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) lasers from heterostructures grown on silicon substrate by MOVPE. Luminescence and laser properties of these heterostructures on silicon substrates as well as those of MQWs lifted-off from their substrate by chemical etching were investigated. The lowest value of the lasing threshold of the lift-off lasers at room temperature was about 205 kW/cm² for a laser wavelength of 463 nm and about 360 kW/cm² for a wavelength of 475 nm. It was shown theoretically that the reduction of internal losses, caused by the absence of absorption in the substrate (resulting from its removal) is most significant for the high order modes having lower values of mirror losses and can lead to a 50% reduction of the threshold (or material gain in InGaN necessary to achieve the threshold).