Tunable random polymer fiber laser

Abstract

We have demonstrated the realization of on-line temperature-controlled random lasers (RLs) in the polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) nanoparticles (NPs) as well as Pyrromethene 597 (PM597) laser dye, FeO/SiO NPs as well as PM597, and only PM597 doped polymer optical fibers (POFs), respectively. The RLs can be obtained from the gained POFs system caused by multiple scattering of emitted light. The refractive index of the fiber core materials can be easily tuned via temperature due to the polymer with large thermo-optic coefficient. Meanwhile, the scattering mean free path of core in the POFs, which is the key role for the emission wavelength of RLs, is strongly dependent on the matrix refractive index. Thus emission wavelength of RLs in the POF temperature can be controlled through changing the temperature. With the increasing the temperature, the RL emission wavelength has occurred red-shift effect for the POFs.

Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Polymer Optical Fiber Random Laser with Resonant Feedback

“…Regardless of the pump power, the laser cavity length L c is always much shorter than the scattering mean free path l s of the TiO 2 nanoparticles. Such low L c value is due to the waveguide confinement effect provided by the POF, which highly increases the multiscattering probability of the light and results in laser cavities with the cavity path length shorter than expected …”

“…Conversely, the size of the second type of RFLs is in the centimeter scale . Moreover, the properties of the second type of RFLs (e.g., shape, size, lasing wavelength, and laser threshold) could be tuned via controlling the fiber materials, scatterers, and optical gain medium . As a result, the second type of RFLs can be regarded as ideal experimental systems for the investigation of random lasing with novel materials (like plasmonic materials), which have already been reported in several studies .…”

“…These RFLs have several merits like low threshold, directional output, and low‐cost fabrication, indicating that they are superior to other conventional RLs in some applications . According to the feedback mechanism, RFLs can be generally classified into two categories: (1) RFLs based on common single mode fibers with the feedback provided by Rayleigh scattering and Raman effect, (2) RFLs based on specific fibers (e.g., liquid core optical fibers, polymer optical fibers, and erbium‐doped fibers) with the feedback provided by doped particles or randomly distributed Bragg gratings . For the first type of RFLs, their length are normally more than several kilometers, which limits their applications .…”

Multi-wavelength coherent random laser in bio-microfibers

“…Random lasers (RLs) have been the subject of intense research owing to their easy fabrication, low coherence, and small size [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The lasing feedback mechanism is synergistically achieved by multiple light scattering, which is different from traditional lasers [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

Replica Symmetry Breaking in FRET‐Assisted Random Laser Based on Electrospun Polymer Fiber

“…Different from the traditional laser system, RLs do not have well‐defined laser cavities and their lasing feedbacks are simply provided by the multiple light scattering. This cavity‐less feature enables the easy realization of RLs based on the various disorder systems, such as liquid crystal, thin polymer film, quartz tube, and polymer fiber . Moreover, due to the modifiability of RLs, many studies have been devoted to functionalize the RL systems with special characteristics such as multicolor emission and tunable lasing wavelengths .…”