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Single mode lasers, particularly red-green-blue (RGB) colors, have attracted wide attention due to their potential applications in the photonic field. Here, we realize the RGB single mode lasing in a hybrid two-dimension and three-dimension (2D–3D) hybrid microcavity (μ-cavity) with a low threshold. The hybrid 2D–3D μ-cavity consists of a polymer fiber and a microsphere. Typical RGB polymer film consisting gain materials are cladded on a fiber. To achieve single mode lasing, the polymer fiber therein serves as an excellent gain cavity to provide multiple lasing modes while the microsphere acts as a loss channel to suppress most of the lasing modes. Mode switching can be realized by adjusting the pump position. It can be attributed to the change of coupled efficiency between gain μ-cavity and loss μ-cavity. Our work will provide a platform for the rational design of nanophotonic devices and on-chip communication.

Drop-based microcavity lasers emerged as a promising tool in modern physics investigation and chemical detection owing to their cost-effective fabrication, high luminescence, and sensitive molecule sensing. However, it is of great challenge to achieve highly directional emission along with high quality (Q) factors via traditional droplet self-assembly behavior of the gain medium on a planar substrate. In this work, a single-mode microcavity laser with directional far-field emission is first proposed via droplet self-assembly 3D-curved microcavities, and simultaneously, acetic acid (AcOH) gas sensing is realized. Trichromatic single-mode lasing in 3D-curved microcavities with distinct organic polymer droplets is constructed on silica fibers via a self-assembly procedure. By regulating the curvature of the substrate, mode selection and directional emission of the lasing action are realized. The measured Q-factor of the proposed anisotropic 3D-curved active microcavity is ∼20k. Furthermore, on account of the sensitive responsiveness of liquid organic polymers, single-mode laser sensors can be realized by measuring the shift of their lasing modes on exposure to organic vapor. Benefiting from chemical reaction with rhodamine 6G, the AcOH gas sensor displays a short response time. These results may open new insights into drop-based quasi-3D-anisotropic whispering-gallery-mode microcavities to improve the development of lab-in-a-droplet, ranging from a tuneable microcavity laser to a chemical gas sensor.

Single-mode plasmonic lasing has great potential for use in photonic and sensing applications. In this work, single-mode lasing is realized using a plasmonic-enhanced woven microfiber that shows ultrahigh sensitivity to the ambient environment. This plasmonic-enhanced microfiber is fabricated by spraying Ag nanospheres onto rhodamine 6G-doped polymer microfibers. Single-mode laser emission with an ultranarrow linewidth (0.1 nm) and a low threshold (18.8 kW/mm2) is achieved in the microfiber using the effects of mode selection and plasmonic enhancement provided by the Ag nanospheres. A large wavelength shift in the single-mode lasing is observed when the proposed laser is used as a sensor and exposed to a humid or acidic environment. The wavelength shift is attributed to refractive index variations in the microfiber caused by either moisture absorption or chemical reactions. In humidity sensing, the laser's sensitivity is as high as 826.6 pm/% relative humidity (RH) and the detection limit is 0.051% RH. An innovative strategy for acetic acid gas sensing is proposed that uses the chemical reaction with rhodamine 6G, and its minimum response time is 5 min. Because of the microfiber's excellent fabric compatibility, a wearable sensor is fabricated by weaving the plasmonic-enhanced microfiber into clothes, and this sensor demonstrates extreme bending stability. The results reported here provide a novel approach to the design and fabrication of ultrasensitive wearable sensors for multifunctional sensing applications.

An ultrathin-film microring laser was fabricated using inkjet printing and a simple lift-off technique. Whispering-gallery-mode lasing was observed under optically pumped conditions in the film. The freestanding laser can be transferred to arbitrary surfaces for multifunctional applications, such as acoustic and relative humidity sensing. Using the first eigenmode of a membrane vibration, an acoustic sensor with a 0.15 Pa limit of detection was demonstrated via laser bandwidth broadening. A relative humidity sensor with a 1.1% limit of detection via wavelength shifts was demonstrated by placing the device on an optical fiber facet. These cost-effective, transferrable, multifunctional laser sensors will have many additional applications.

Because of its limited light field mode and high Q value, the whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) cavity has been widely studied. In this study, we propose a simple, rapid, low-cost and no-manufacturing technology method that we call the drip-coating method to obtain an irregular cavity with arbitrary boundaries. By using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution doped with rhodamine 6G, the irregular cavity with arbitrary boundaries was drip-coated on a high-reflection mirror, forming a WGM laser. The sample was pumped with a 532 nm pulsed laser, and the single-mode WGM and multi-WGM lasing were obtained. All WGMs are the vertical oscillation modes, which originate from both the total internal reflection of the PVA/air interface and vertical reflection of the PVA/mirror interface. The other boundaries of the cavity were not involved in the reflection and could have any shape. The mechanism of producing single-mode lasing is due to the action of the loss-gain cavity. Multi-WGM lasing is attributed to at least two groups of different WGMs existing in an irregular cavity. This can be confirmed by using a microsphere model and intensity correlation method. These results may provide an alternative for the design of WGM lasers.

Hybrid lead halide perovskites have made great strides in next-generation photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices. Random lasers based on perovskite materials have been intensively investigated, but the miniaturization of perovskite random lasers has not been achieved up to now. Here, we report the fabrication of perovskite random lasers based on perovskite films deposited on the optical fiber facets using a dip-coating method. Under optical pumping conditions, random lasing was observed with minimum threshold energy of 32.3 μJ/cm2 at ~550 nm; also, the lasing threshold decreased with increasing diameter of the optical fiber. The results show that the random lasing emission originates from the scattering between the perovskite crystal grains, and the decreased threshold is attributed to the increased active area of the perovskite film. The directionality of perovskite random lasers indicates that the divergence angle of the laser beam is less than 60°. We also demonstrate that the perovskite random laser on the fiber facet can prevent speckle formation and improve image quality. These results may promote the applications of random lasers in compact sources and integrated optoelectronic devices.

Considerable research efforts have been devoted to the investigation of distributed feedback (DFB) organic lasing in photonic crystals in recent decades. It is still a big challenge to realize DFB lasing in complex photonic crystals. This review discusses the recent progress on the DFB organic laser based on one-, two-, and three-dimensional photonic crystals. The photophysics of gain materials and the fabrication of laser cavities are also introduced. At last, future development trends of the lasers are prospected.

Humidity sensing plays an important role in the professional field and our daily life, such as chemical preparation process, environmental monitoring, and food storage. Herein, a wearable humidity sensor is designed based on a flexible plasmonic random laser. The random laser-based humidity sensor is fabricated by transferring an ultrathin light-emitting polymer membrane doped with silver nanoparticles onto the humidity-sensitive PEDOT:PSS film. Under optical pumping, random lasing with low-threshold is achieved, assisted by the strong plasmonic feedback of the silver nanoparticles. The random laser-based humidity sensor exhibits a good linear response with a coefficient of 0.997. Comparing with the emission intensity at initial relative humidity (RH) (34.8%), the peak intensity increases 5.5 times at an RH value of 93.5%. This phenomenon mainly results from the ambient humidity-sensitive relative refractive index difference between polymer membrane and PEDOT:PSS film. The random laser-based humidity sensor is flexible and nontoxic, which can be transplanted easily to achieve wearable laser devices.

This article assembles a distributed feedback (DFB) cavity on the sidewalls of the optical fiber by using very simple fabrication techniques including two-beam interference lithography and dip-coating. The DFB laser structure comprises graduated gratings on the optical fiber sidewalls which are covered with a layer of colloidal quantum dots. Directional DFB lasing is observed from the fiber facet due to the coupling effect between the grating and the optical fiber. The directional lasing from the optical fiber facet exhibits a small solid divergence angle as compared to the conventional laser. It can be attributed to the two-dimensional light confinement in the fiber waveguide. An analytical approach based on the Bragg condition and the coupled-wave theory was developed to explain the characteristics of the laser device. The intensity of the output coupled laser is tuned by the coupling coefficient, which is determined by the angle between the grating vector and the fiber axis. These results afford opportunities to integrate different DFB lasers on the same optical fiber sidewall, achieving multi-wavelength self-aligned DFB lasers for a directional emission. The proposed technique may provide an alternative to integrating DFB lasers for applications in networking, optical sensing, and power delivery.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of the structure light is viewed as a candidate for enhancing the capacity of information processing. Microring has advantages in realizing the compact lasers required for on-chip applications. However, as the clockwise and counterclockwise whispering gallery modes (WGM) appear simultaneously, the emitted light from the normal microring does not possess net OAM. Here, we propose an OAM laser based on the standing-wave WGMs containing clockwise and counterclockwise WGM components. Due to the inhomogeneous intensity distribution of the standing-wave WGM, the single-mode lasing for the OAM light can be realized. Besides, the OAM of the emitted light can be designed on demand. The principle and properties of the proposed laser are demonstrated by numerical simulations. This work paves the way for exploring a single-mode OAM laser based on the plasmonic standing-wave WGMs at the microscale, which can be served as a basic building block for on-chip optical devices.

Recently, wearable sensor technology has drawn attention to many health-related appliances due to its varied existing optical, electrical, and mechanical applications. Similarly, we have designed a simple and cheap lift-off fabrication technique for the realization of large-area biocompatible random lasers to customize wearable sensors. A large-area random microcavity comprises a matrix element polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) in which rhodamine B (RhB, which acts as a gain medium) and gold nanorods (Au NRs, which offer plasmonic feedback) are incorporated via a spin-coating technique. In regards to the respective random lasing device residing on a heterogenous film (area &gt, 100 cm2), upon optical excitation, coherent random lasing with a narrow linewidth (~0.4 nm) at a low threshold (~23 μJ/cm2 per pulse) was successfully attained. Here, we maneuvered the mechanical flexibility of the device to modify the spacing between the feedback agents (Au NRs), which tuned the average wavelength from 612.6 to 624 nm under bending while being a recoverable process. Moreover, the flexible film can potentially be used on human skin such as the finger to serve as a motion and relative-humidity sensor. This work demonstrates a designable and simple method to fabricate a large-area biocompatible random laser for wearable sensing.

A full-color whispering-gallery mode (WGM) laser has been fabricated by partitioning different light-emitting polymers in a nested microcavity. Red-green-blue WGM lasing with a high quality factor above 104 and a narrow linewidth of 0.025 nm emits from nested capillaries when excited with a nanosecond laser. The full-color WGM lasing shows a low excitation threshold for the nested microcavities, which can avoid fluorescence resonant energy transfer. We also achieve wavelength tunable lasing upon altering the different polymers in the nested microcavities. The work demonstrates a simple method to fabricate a full-color WGM laser and its potential applications in compact lighting devices and white laser sources.

Among the efforts to improve the performances of microlasers, optimization of the gain properties and cavity parameters of these lasers has attracted significant attention recently. Distributed feedback lasers, as one of the most promising candidate technologies for electrically pumped microlasers, can be combined with dual-gratings. This combination provides additional freedom for the design of the laser cavity. Here, a holographic dual-grating is designed to improve the distributed feedback laser performance. The holographic dual-grating laser consists of a colloidal quantum dot film with two parallel gratings, comprising first-order (210 nm) and second-order (420 nm) gratings that can be fabricated easily using a combination of spin coating and interference lithography. The feedback and the output from the cavity are controlled using the first-order grating and the second-order grating, respectively. Through careful design and analysis of the dual-grating, a balance is achieved between the feedback and the cavity output such that the lasing threshold based on the dual-grating is nearly half the threshold of conventional distributed feedback lasers. Additionally, the holographic dual-grating laser shows a high level of stability because of the high stability of the colloidal quantum dots against photobleaching.

Fibonacci-spaced defect resonators were analytically investigated by cavity coupling, which exhibited a series of well-defined optical modes in fractals. The analytic model can be used to predict the output performance of microcavity lasers based on Fibonacci-spaced defect resonators, such as the mode number, resonant frequency, and Q factor. All results obtained by the analytical solution are in good consistency with that obtained by the finite-difference time-domain method. The simulation result shows that the Q factor of the resonant modes would increase dramatically with the appearance of narrower optical modes. The proposed theoretical model can be used to inversely design high performance polymer lasers based on the Fibonacci-spaced defect resonators.

In this work, the thermo-optic effect in polymers was used to realize a temperature-tunable whispering-gallery-mode laser. The laser was fabricated using a capillary tube filled with a light-emitting conjugated polymer solution via the capillary effect. In the whispering-gallery-mode laser emission wavelength can be continuously tuned to about 19.5 nm using thermo-optic effect of polymer. The influence of different organic solvents on the tuning rate was studied. For a typical lasing mode with a bandwidth of 0.08 nm, a temperature-resolved tuning rate of ~1.55 nm/&deg, C was obtained. The two-ring coupling effect is responsible for the suppression of the WGM in the micro-cavity laser. The proposed laser exhibited good reversibility and repeatability as well as a sensitive response to temperature, which could be applied to the design of photothermic and sensing devices.

A dual-color plasmonic random laser under single-excitation is achieved in an ultrathin membrane doped with binary quantum dots and gold nanorods. The gold nanorods tune the luminescence lifetime and emission efficiency of quantum dots. Under single excitation, low-threshold random lasing is observed. Green random lasing at 547 nm is 'turned on' and red random lasing at 630 nm is greatly enhanced by the transversal and longitudinal surface plasmon resonance of the gold nanorods, respectively. Speckle-free color imaging is achieved by using the proposed dual-color random laser source. These properties would facilitate the development of random lasers in fields of illumination and imaging.

Herein, a quantum dot random laser was achieved using a silicon nanowire array. The silicon nanowire array was grown by a metal-assisted chemical etching method. A colloidal quantum dot solution was spin-coated on silicon nanowires to form the random laser. The performance of the random laser was controlled by the resistivity of silicon wafers and the length of silicon nanowires. A transition from incoherent random lasing to coherent random lasing was obtained by increasing the resistivity of the silicon wafers. The random lasing threshold increased with an increase in the length of the silicon nanowires. These results may be useful to explore high-performance silicon-based random lasers.

Lasers with multi-wavelength colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) can be achieved using complex grating structures and flexible substrate. The structure contains graduated periods and rectangular cavity fabricated through interference lithography, which acts as the distributed feedback cavity. A layer of densely packed CQD film is deposited on the cavity via spin coating technique. The performance of CQD lasers based on different distributed feedback cavities is investigated. Multi-wavelength lasing is achieved based on a flexible rectangular cavity.

A dual-wavelength random laser of polymer film is fabricated by a spincoating method, and the dual cavities of step type are prepared on a silica substrate. The random microstructure forms due to the phase separation in the fabrication process, and provides a multiscattering mechanism for random lasing. The wavelength of output emission alters from 450 nm to 467 nm, when the pump spot totally shifts from cavity A to Cavity B. The output intensities can be adjusted by the ratio of illuminate areas on the dual cavities. The design of step cavities provides simple approach of a dual-wavelength random lasing emission, demonstrating potentials for compact laser devices.

Tunable whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) lasers have been paid lots of attention for their potential applications in the photonic field. Here, a tunable polymer WGM laser based on laser diode pumping is realized with a threshold of 0.43 MW/cm2 per pulse. The WGM laser is realized by a microfluidic microcavity, which consists of a quartz capillary and gain materials. The laser performance keeps stable for a long time (3.5 h), pumped by a 50-ns 50 Hz laser diode with a pumping peak power density of 1.08 MW/cm2 per pulse. The lasing wavelength can be tuned over 15 nm by changing the gain material concentration from 3.5 mg/mL to 12.5 mg/mL in the microfluidic channel. Moreover, the lasing mode can be switched between transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) modes by adjusting the pump polarization. These results provide the basis for designing nanophotonic devices with laser diode pumping.

Lateral effect photodiodes sense the position of a laser beam by measuring the change of current between opposite anodes and a common cathode. They either require a bias current or the current is photogenerated. In either case, their linearity is affected by the non-uniformity of the current distribution between the anodes. We here propose a bias-free, lateral photo-diode, which consists of a resistive layer forming an extended Schottky contact to an intrinsic semiconductor. In our sensor, the photo-generated carriers do not diffuse laterally. Rather, their localization under the laser-beam results in a reduction of the barrier height due to image force effect. An open-circuit voltage appears between two opposite electrodes that is linear with the laser-beam position. A tetra-lateral configuration, with four anodes at the edges of a square-shaped sensor, allows sensing in two dimensions.

Continuously tunable polymer lasing was achieved in one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and compound chirped cavities. The chirped cavity was simply fabricated by using interference lithography and spin coating. Two-dimensional and compound chirped cavities were obtained by employing oblique exposure and double exposure, respectively. The tunability range of two-dimensional chirped cavities was much wider than that of one-dimensional chirped cavities, which varied from 557 nm to 582 nm. The interaction between lasing modes was studied in the compound cavity by introducing an additional nanostructure into the two-dimensional chirped cavities. The threshold of the compound chirped cavities changed with the coupling strength between lasing modes. These results may be helpful for designing compact polymer laser sources.

A compound cavity was proposed to achieve both whispering gallery mode (WGM) lasing and random lasing. The WGM-random compound cavity consisted of a random structure with an annular boundary, which was fabricated by a method combining both inkjet printing and metal-assisted chemical etching methods. An ultrathin polymer membrane was attached to the WGM-random compound cavity, forming a polymer laser device. A transformation from WGM lasing to random lasing was observed under optical pumping conditions. The laser performance could be easily tailored by changing the parameter of the WGM-random compound cavity. These results provide a new avenue for the design of integrated light sources for sensing applications.

The polarization and threshold of distributed feedback (DFB) polymer lasers were controlled by adjusting the cavity coupling. The cavity of DFB polymer lasers consisted of two gratings, which was fabricated by a two-beam multi-exposure holographic technique. The coupling strength of the cavity modes was tuned by changing the angle between the two gratings. The threshold of the polymer lasers decreased with reducing the coupling strength of the cavity modes. A minimum threshold was observed at the lowest coupling strength. Moreover, the azimuthally polarized output of the polymer lasers was modified by changing the cavity coupling. These results may provide additional perspectives to improve the performance of DFB polymer lasers.

A random laser was achieved in a polymer membrane with silver nanoflowers on a flexible substrate. The strong confinement of the polymer waveguide and the localized field enhancement of silver nanoflowers were essential for the low-threshold random lasing action. The lasing wavelength can be tuned by bending the flexible substrate. The solution phase synthesis of the silver nanoflowers enables easy realization of this type of random lasers. The flexible and high-efficiency random lasers provide favorable factors for the development of imaging and sensing devices.

Global research on the solution-processable colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) constitutes outstanding model systems in nanoscience, micro-lasers, and optoelectronic devices due to tunable color, low cost, and wet chemical processing. The two-dimensional (2D) CQDs quasicrystal lasers are more efficient in providing coherent lasing due to radiation feedback, high-quality-factor optical mode, and long-range rotational symmetry. Here, we have fabricated a 2D quasicrystal exhibiting 10-fold rotational symmetry by using a specially design pentagonal prism in the optical setup of a simple and low-cost holographic lithography. We developed a general analytical model based on the cavity coupling effect, which can be used to explain the underlying mechanism responsible for the multi-wavelength lasing in the fabricated 2D CQDs holographic photonic quasicrystal. The multi-wavelength surface-emitting lasers such as λ0 = 629.27 nm, λ1 = 629.85 nm, λ−1 = 629.06 nm, λ2 = 630.17 nm, and λ−2 = 628.76 with a coupling constant κ = 0.38 achieved from the 2D holographic photonic quasicrystal are approximately similar with the developed analytical model based on cavity coupling effect. Moreover, the lasing patterns of the 2D CQDs photonic quasicrystal laser exhibit a symmetrical polarization effect by rotating the axis of polarization with a difference of 1200 angle in a round trip. We expect that our findings will provide a new approach to customize the 2D CQDs holographic photonic quasicrystal lasers in the field of optoelectronic devices and miniature lasing systems.

In recent years, conjugated polymers have become the materials of choice to fabricate optoelectronic devices, owing to their properties of high absorbance, high quantum efficiency, and wide luminescence tuning ranges. The efficient feedback mechanism in the concentric ring resonator and its circularly symmetric periodic geometry combined with the broadband photoluminescence spectrum of the conjugated polymer can generate a highly coherent output beam. Here, the detailed design of the ultralow-threshold single-mode circular distributed feedback polymer laser is presented with combined fabrication processes such as electron beam lithography and the spin-coating technique. We observe from the extinction spectra of the circular gratings that the transverse electric mode shows no change with the increase of incident beam angle. The strong enhancement of the conjugated polymer photoluminescence spectra with the circular periodic resonator can reduce the lasing threshold about 19 µJ/cm2. A very thin polymer film of about 110 nm is achieved with the spin-coating technique. The thickness of the gain medium can support only the zero-order transverse electric lasing mode. We expect that such a low threshold lasing device can find application in optoelectronic devices.

A red-green-blue (RGB) random laser consisting of three polymer layers and two isolated layers is fabricated on an optical fiber end facet by a dip-coating method. The total thickness of the laser device is approximately 3600 nm. Silver nanoparticles are embedded in each of the three polymer layers and provide strong plasmonic enhancement of the pump light. Simultaneous RGB plasmonic random lasing is observed within the multilayer structure located on the fiber end facet under pulsed optical pumping conditions. The results reported here can be used directly in the design of compact laser sources and laser-based sensors.

Flexible and effective manipulation of the distributed feedback (DFB) polymer lasers remained a challenge. Herein, the performance of the polymer laser was manipulating by integrating a one-dimension diffraction element into the DFB cavity. Gratings with different periods were employed as the DFB cavity and the diffraction element, respectively. The compound cavity with different gratings was fabricated by using a multi-exposure two-beam interference technique. One-to-many lasing beams were realized in the compound cavity. The azimuth and elevation angles of the laser beam were controlled by adjusting the period of the diffraction element. The threshold of the laser device was affected by the introduction of the diffraction element, which was explained by the coupled-mode theory. The manipulation method was also extended to the case of a two-dimension diffraction element. These features provide flexible control over the performance of the polymer lasers.

In this study, high-order distributed-feedback (DFB) polymer lasers were comparatively investigated. Their performance relies on multiple lasing directions and their advantages include their high manufacturing tolerances due to the large grating periods. Nine laser cavities were fabricated by spin-coating the gain polymer films onto a grating structure, which was manufactured via interference lithography that operated at the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th DFB orders. Low threshold lasing and high slope efficiency were achieved in high-order DFB polymer lasers due to the large grating groove depth and the large gain layer thickness. A high-order DFB configuration shows possible advantages, including the ability to control the lasing direction and to achieve multiple-wavelength lasers. Furthermore, our investigation demonstrates that the increase in threshold and decrease in slope efficiency with an increase in the feedback order can be limited by controlling the structural parameters.

We develop an analytical solution based on the cavity coupling that can be used to predict the output performance of the 1D defect modes. This solution gives a concise analytical expression of every emission wavelength of the defect modes with arbitrary defect numbers. The splitting and the resonance modes are explained qualitatively by the proposed theoretical model. The output performance obtained by the analytical solution are in good consistency with that obtained by the numerical simulations using the finite-difference time-domain method. These results may provide a useful alternative to customize the 1D coupled defect mode laser.

Tunable distributed feedback polymer lasing was achieved in a metal-dielectric hybrid cavity. The laser device consisted of a double-layer grating structure and a polymer membrane. Interference lithography and oblique evaporation techniques were employed in fabricating the cavity. The photoresist grating was fabricated by interference lithography. Silver was obliquely evaporated onto the photoresist grating, forming a double-layer grating structure. Then a free-standing polymer membrane was attached on the structure. Under optically pumped conditions, low-threshold lasing was obtained, due to the plasmonic enhancement. The lasing wavelength can be tuned by changing the silver grating’s thickness, which results from the variance of the effective refractive index of the cavity. These results can be used to design high-efficiency laser devices.

Multi-wavelength colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) lasers are achieved using complex grating structures and flexible substrate. The structure contains graduated periods and rectangular cavity fabricated via interference lithography, which acts as the distributed feedback. A layer of densely packed CQDs film is deposited on the cavity via spin coating technique. The performance of CQDs lasers is investigated based on different distributed feedback cavities. Multi-wavelength lasing is achieved based on a flexible rectangular cavity.The fabricated multi-wavelength CQDs lasers platform can be used to explore various applications and research areas especially in the optical communication, mechanical sensing technologies and in various other fields.

Low-cost and miniaturized biosensors are key factors leading to the possibility of portable and integrated biomedical system, which play an important role in clinical medicine and life sciences. Random lasers with simple structures provide opportunities for detecting biomolecules. Here, low-cost biosensors on fiber facet for label-free detecting biomolecules are demonstrated based on a plasmonic random laser. The random laser is achieved resorting to a self-assembled plasmonic scattering structure of Ag nanoparticles and polymer film on fiber facet. Refractive index sensitivity and near-surface sensitivity of the biosensor are systematically studied. Furthermore, the biosensor is used to detect IgG through specific binding to protein A, exhibiting the detecting limit of 0.68 nM. It is believed that this work may promote the applications of a plasmonic random laser bio-probe in portable or integrated medical diagnostic platforms, and provide fundamental understanding for the life science.

Simultaneous distributed feedback (DFB) lasing and linear polarized random lasing are observed in a compound cavity, which consists of a grating cavity and a random cavity. The grating cavity is fabricated by interference lithography. A light-emitting polymer doped with silver nanoparticles is spin-coated on the grating, forming a random cavity. DFB lasing and random lasing occur when the periodic-random compound cavity is optically pumped. The directionality and polarization of the random laser are modified by the grating structure. These results can potentially be used to design integrated laser sources.

A 3D surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor is realized on the facet of an optical fiber. A SERS radar configuration consisting of a parabolic mirror and a 3D spherical SERS body is designed. The parabolic mirror is used to focus the excitation laser light onto the surface of the SERS body, and to collect and reflect the Raman scattered light back into the optical fiber. The SERS body's surface consists of microscale trenches and is covered with gold nanogratings and nanoparticles on a thick gold film with a thin SiO2 spacer. Nanoscale 3D printing technology, thermal evaporation, and UV laser pulse irradiation are used to fabricate and metalize the mold of the 3D SERS radar configuration. The performance of this Au-based SERS fiber sensor is competitive with those of Ag-based SERS fiber sensors reported in the literature. It exhibits a detection limit of 10−6m for crystal violet in ethanol using 30 mW of 785 nm excitation (off resonance with the crystal violet electronic absorption) and 10 s acquisition time. Such a 3D scheme expands the design possibilities of SERS nanostructures on the facets of optical fibers enormously.

Low-threshold random lasing was achieved in a polymer membrane with silver nanoflowers. The random laser was fabricated by attaching the polymer membrane on the silver nanoflowers.

A mechanically-tunable random laser based on a waveguide-plasmonic scheme has been investigated. This laser can be constructed by spin coating a solution of polydimethylsiloxane doped with the rhodamine 6G organic dye and silver nanowires onto a silicone rubber slab. The excellent overlap of the plasmon resonance peak of the silver nanowires with both the pump wavelength and the photoluminescence spectrum provides the low threshold and tuning properties of the random laser. The random laser wavelength can be tuned from 558 to 565 nm by stretching the soft substrate, which causes reorientation and breakage of the silver nanowires. The polarization state of the random laser can also be changed from random polarization to partial polarization by stretching. The laser performance remains unchanged after the stretching and restoration experiments. These results not only enable easy realization of an ultrathin flexible plasmonic random laser but also provide insights into the mechanisms of three-dimensional plasmonic feedback random lasers.

Red-green-blue polymer laser emission is achieved in a free-standing membrane device consisting of three distributed feedback cavities. The polymer membrane is fabricated via interference lithography and a simple lift-off process. Multilayer structures can be assembled by cascading several polymer membranes. Thus optically pumped, simultaneous, red-green-blue laser emission is obtained from a three-layer cascaded membrane structure. This simple and low-cost fabrication technique can be used for compact, integrated laser sources.

The parameters of a pump have a marked influence on the performance of distributed feedback polymer lasers. Our polymer laser consisted of a grating and a polymer film. We fabricated the grating using interference lithography. The polymer film was spin coated on the grating. A half-wave plate was used to change the pump polarization, and an x-y slit was used to change the pump size. The direction of grating lines were parallel to the x axis of the slit. The laser performance was modified by changing the polarizations and sizes of the pump beam. The lasing threshold increased more rapidly with decreasing pump size in the y direction than in the x direction. The influence of the pump polarization on the lasing threshold for decreasing pump size in the x direction was greater than that for decreasing pump size in the y direction. These results may be useful for the miniaturization of distributed feedback polymer lasers.

A thin-film photonic lens is fabricated using chirped plasmonic grating structures, which enables off-axis focusing and simultaneous de-multiplexing of the incident light beams, as well as the intrinsic function of an optical lens for imaging. This planar two-dimensional photonic device may be used either as a positive (converging) or a negative (diverging) lens through controlling how the light beam is incident and how the device is oriented, which defines multifold ‘diode’ effects and is thus termed “forward” or “backward” biasing of such a ‘diode’ lens. This plasmonic photonic diode (PPD) features by unidirectional functions instead of non-reciprocal transmission. These unique functions are demonstrated by focusing different colors into different angles and different focal lengths with large dispersions, which enables direct wavelength division de-multiplexing with high resolution and high efficiency. Strong plasmonic scattering by the gold nanolines that constitute the chirped grating structures leads to efficient operation and polarization-dependent performance of the PPD device.

Diffraction anomaly corresponds to an energy re-distribution in the reflected and transmitted light beams and in different diffraction orders of a grating, which leads to sharp modulations on the transmission and reflection spectra. In gratings sitting on a transparent substrate, this portion of the energy is actually transferred to channels separated from the reflected and transmitted beams. These channels are based on multiple degenerated diffraction processes at the same wavelength as the diffraction anomaly. The spectroscopic response of these channels is sensitive to the change in the environmental refractive index and can be utilized in sensor devices.

Different emission properties of band edge laser in a face centered cubic (FCC) photonic crystal pumped by ps and ns pulse were investigated experimentally. For the case pumped by ps laser, multi-mode emission is obtained and every modes have narrow line width. For the case pumped by ns laser, there is only a single dominant mode with high output intensity and a line width about several nanometers. Also, the lasing threshold pumped by ns laser is much lower than that pumped by ps laser, and the emission mode pumped by ns laser is more stable than that pumped by ps laser.

Nanoscale photonic structures are patterned directly by exposing a thin film of conjugated polymer to the interference pattern of UV laser beams, thus inducing crosslinking between the polymer molecules in the bright fringes. The crosslinked polymer molecules become indissolvable in organic solvent due to the localized photochemical modification, enabling successful lift-off of the soft grating structures. The resultant nanodevice exhibits excellent chemical and physical stability. This demonstrates the high spatial resolution of the crosslinking process and introduces a direct nanofabrication technique, which may be utilized in the design of optoelectronic and laser devices.

A 2-dimensional gradual period photonic heterostructure was made with holography by use of non-uniform swelling effect of dichromated gelatin during processing. In this structure, the symmetric point group of triangle lattice was debased to C2V from C6V. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that omnidirectional band gap in visible range can be achieved with this kind of heterostructure made by low refractive index materials.

Different distributed feedback (DFB) configurations in optically pumped polymer lasers, including the active Bragg grating structures, the dielectric grating structures spin-coated with polymeric semiconductors, and the actively waveguide dielectric grating structures (AWGS), are studied systematically. In the experiment, the F8BT polymer poly [(9,9dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-co(1,4-benzo-{2,1’,3} -thiadiazole)] is employed as the active medium in the three laser configuration. And all grating structures are fabricated though interference lithography or interference ablation. It is found that the AWGS design has advantages over the other two. The continuous and high-quality active waveguide in the AWGS enables low-threshold (115 μJ/cm) laser emission with narrow linewidth (∼0.4 nm at full-width at half-maximum). The experimental verifications are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. These results reveal some interesting mechanisms in optically pumped DFB polymer lasers, and it may be enlightening to the construction of electrically driven organic lasers. OCIS codes: 140.3490, 160.5470, 260.3160. doi: 10.3788/COL201210.S11409.

Flexible and adjustable beam splitters, expanders/compressors and the cloak are presented based on a universal two-dimensional transformation formula for the embedded transformation optics. Nonlinear transformation results by the suggested formula under different conditions reveal several interesting phenomena and potential applications. All beam controllers are achieved by the nonlinear coordinate transformation.