Beaming random lasers with soliton control

Sreekanth Perumbilavil; Armando Piccardi; Raouf Barboza; Oleksandr Buchnev; Martti Kauranen; Giuseppe Strangi; Gaetano Assanto

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06170-9

Beaming random lasers with soliton control

Sreekanth Perumbilavil, Armando Piccardi, Raouf Barboza, Oleksandr Buchnev, Martti Kauranen, Giuseppe Strangi, Gaetano Assanto

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Abstract

Random lasers are resonator-less light sources where feedback stems from recurrent scattering at the expense of spatial profile and directionality. Suitably-doped nematic liquid crystals can random lase when optically pumped near resonance(s); moreover, through molecular reorientation within the transparency region, they support self-guided optical spatial solitons, i.e., light-induced waveguides. Here, we synergistically combine solitons and collinear pumping in weakly scattering dye-doped nematic liquid crystals, whereby random lasing and self-confinement concur to beaming the emission, with several improved features: all-optical switching driven by a low-power input, laser directionality and smooth output profile with high-conversion efficiency, externally controlled angular steering. Such effects make soliton-assisted random lasers an outstanding route towards application-oriented random lasers.

Original language	English
Article number	3863
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06170-9
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2018
Publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

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Publication forum level 3

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1038/s41467-018-06170-9

s41467-018-06170-9
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http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201810262477

Cite this

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AU - Perumbilavil, Sreekanth

AU - Piccardi, Armando

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AU - Kauranen, Martti

AU - Strangi, Giuseppe

AU - Assanto, Gaetano

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N2 - Random lasers are resonator-less light sources where feedback stems from recurrent scattering at the expense of spatial profile and directionality. Suitably-doped nematic liquid crystals can random lase when optically pumped near resonance(s); moreover, through molecular reorientation within the transparency region, they support self-guided optical spatial solitons, i.e., light-induced waveguides. Here, we synergistically combine solitons and collinear pumping in weakly scattering dye-doped nematic liquid crystals, whereby random lasing and self-confinement concur to beaming the emission, with several improved features: all-optical switching driven by a low-power input, laser directionality and smooth output profile with high-conversion efficiency, externally controlled angular steering. Such effects make soliton-assisted random lasers an outstanding route towards application-oriented random lasers.

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Beaming random lasers with soliton control

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