Tuning Whispering Gallery Mode Lasing from Self-Assembled Polymer Droplets

Optical microcavities are important for both fundamental studies of light-matter interaction and applications such as microlasers, optical switches and filters etc... Tunable microresonators, in which resonant modes can be manipulated, are especially fascinating. Here we demonstrate a unique approac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2013-03, Vol.3 (1), p.1362-1362, Article 1362
Main Authors: Ta, Van Duong, Chen, Rui, Sun, Han Dong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/166/987
639/301/1019/1020/1094
639/624/1020/1091
639/624/399/1097
Epoxy resins
Equipment Design
Filters
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lasers
Light
Microtechnology - instrumentation
Microtechnology - methods
multidisciplinary
Optical Devices
Optics and Photonics - instrumentation
Optics and Photonics - methods
Plastics
Polymers
Polymers - chemistry
Polystyrenes - chemistry
Reproducibility of Results
Rhodamines - chemistry
Science
Self-assembly
Solvents
Time Factors
Wavelengths
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Summary:Optical microcavities are important for both fundamental studies of light-matter interaction and applications such as microlasers, optical switches and filters etc... Tunable microresonators, in which resonant modes can be manipulated, are especially fascinating. Here we demonstrate a unique approach to mechanically tuning microresonators formed by polymer droplets with varying sizes. The droplets are self-assembly inside an elastic medium. By incorporating different dye molecules into the droplets, optically pumped lasing with selective wavelengths in a range of about 100 nm are achieved. Lasing action is ascribed to whispering gallery modes, verified by rigorous characterizations. Single longitudinal mode lasing is obtained when the droplet diameter is reduced to about 14 μm. Tuning lasing modes are clearly demonstrated by mechanical deformation. Our finding provides an excellent platform for exploring flexible and tunable microlasers for plastic optoelectronic devices.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep01362