Rare earth doped PDMS elastomeric random lasers

We report a very stable elastomeric random laser (SERL) system composed of two stable materials: inorganic Nd: YAB nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Lasing at a wavelength of 1064.5 nm is observed when the samples are exposed to pulsed nanosecond excitation at 808 nm or 532 nm, with lon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optical materials 2019-11, Vol.97, p.109387, Article 109387
Main Authors: Hlil, A.R., Lima, B.C., Thomas, J., Boisvert, J.-S., Iden, H., Garcia-Puente, Y., Maia, L.J.Q., Ledemi, Y., Messaddeq, Y., Gomes, A.S.L., Kashyap, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Elastomeric random laser
Levy-like statistics
PDMS
YAB nanoparticles
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Summary:We report a very stable elastomeric random laser (SERL) system composed of two stable materials: inorganic Nd: YAB nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Lasing at a wavelength of 1064.5 nm is observed when the samples are exposed to pulsed nanosecond excitation at 808 nm or 532 nm, with long term (days) operation without degradation. Contrary to other RLs based on polymers, this very stable RL is the first elastomeric system, hence tunable, which allows the systematic investigation of its dynamics over a long time, without the complication of gain reduction or deterioration of the polymer. The RL threshold is estimated to be around 1.0 mJ at 808 nm. The measured linewidth decreases from 3.2 nm to 0.5 nm. The spectral peak position as well as the intensity is conveniently tuned by stretching the elastomer polymer composite. As an application which requires long term operation, Levy-like statistics and replica symmetry breaking in this open cavity random laser were also demonstrated. These lasers have been used over several months without noticeable degradation. [Display omitted] •A Stable Elastomeric Random Laser (SERL) system made with PDMS composite films which contain Nd:YAB (Nd0.8Y0.2Al3B4O12) nanoparticles is studied.•Lasing around 1064.5 nm is observed with pulsed nanosecond excitation at 808 nm and 532 nm.•Stretching the PDMS composite up to 150% allows the study of multi-directionality and multi-wavelength emission.•As an application, which requires long-term operation, Levy-like statistics and replica symmetry breaking in this open cavity random laser are demonstrated.
ISSN:0925-3467
1873-1252
DOI:10.1016/j.optmat.2019.109387