Cellular Features Revealed by Transverse Laser Modes in Frequency Domain

Abstract

Biological lasers which utilize Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavities have attracted tremendous interest due to their potential in amplifying subtle biological changes. Transverse laser modes generated from cells serve as distinct fingerprints of individual cells; however, most lasing signals lack the ability to provide key information about the cell due to high complexity of transverse modes. The missing key, therefore, hinders it from practical applications in biomedicine. This study reveals the key mechanism governing the frequency distributions of transverse modes in cellular lasers. Spatial information of cells including curvature can be interpreted through spectral information of transverse modes by means of hyperspectral imaging. Theoretical studies are conducted to explore the correlation between the cross-sectional morphology of a cell and lasing frequencies of transverse modes. Experimentally, the spectral characteristics of transverse modes are investigated in live and fixed cells with different morphological features. By extracting laser modes in frequency domain, the proposed concept is applied for studying cell adhesion process and cell classification from rat cortices. This study expands a new analytical dimension of cell lasers, opening an avenue for subcellular analysis in biophotonic applications.

Multifunctional Laser Imaging of Cancer Cell Secretion with Hybrid Liquid Crystal Resonators

“…The maximum lasing threshold achieved was 40 μJ mm −2 , which is comparable to other reported biolasers and is also within the acceptable range for biological cells (Table S1, Supporting Information). [8,14,15,20,36,37]…”

Motor-like microlasers functioning in biological fluids

“…[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Recent studies have also incorporated microlasers with cells or tissues, aiming to reveal biological behaviours at the cellular level. [26][27][28][29][30] In spite of the progress that has been developed, [31][32][33][34] manipulation of microlasers under large dimensions with controllable and versatile functions remains a key challenge. Exploring a versatile way for driving and controlling coherent light sources in a liquid environment holds great potential in photostimulation and photoactivable reactions.…”

Monitoring osmotic pressure with a hydrogel integrated optofluidic microlaser

“…[22][23][24][25] Subtle structural changes, including molecular structure, polarization, and cellular structures, could therefore be significantly amplified and observed, and distinguished through output laser emission. [26][27][28][29][30] Lasing emission can be detected easily due to signal amplification, narrow emission linewidth, and unique threshold behaviours. 31 In this study, we demonstrate the possibility of monitoring osmotic pressure by taking advantage of an active optical resonator.…”