Fabrication of uniform microlasers using conventional printing technology
Author affiliations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15625/0868-3166/20185Keywords:
Microlasers, ink-jet printing, Whispering gallery mode, Standard printerAbstract
In recent years, soft material microlasers have attracted great interest for their simple fabrication and potential in flexible photonic devices. Particularly, ink-jet printing technology offers an efficient method for the production of uniform microlasers. However, the ink-jet system is generally complex and expensive. In this work, we have successfully used a cost-effective standard printer for microlaser creation. By employing dye-doped glycerin-water for the printing ink, we can fabricate uniform dome shaped structures, the so-called hemispheres, with diameters from 35 to 70 µm on a hydrophobic coated dielectric mirror. Under optical pulse pumping at 532 nm, these hemispheres exhibit lasing emission with clear modes. The lasing mechanism is studied and ascribed to whispering gallery mode. Due to low optical loss, we achieve a lasing threshold of 32 µJ/mm² and a quality factor of 2100. Our method can be applied to diverse soft matter microlasers and the fabricated microlasers are promising for sensing applications.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Yang, S., Wang, Y., and Sun, H., Advances and Prospects for Whispering Gallery Mode Microcavities, Adv. Optical Mater. 3 (2015) 1136
Vahala, K. J., Optical microcavities, Nature 424 (2003) 839
Yu, D. et al., Whispering-gallery-mode sensors for biological and physical sensing, Nat. Rev. Methods Primers 1 (2021) 83
Ta, V. D., Wang, Y., and Sun, H., Microlasers Enabled by Soft-Matter Technology, Adv. Optical Mater. 7 (2019) 1900057
Wei, G.-Q., Wang, X.-D., and Liao, L.-S., Recent Advances in Organic Whispering-Gallery Mode Lasers, Laser Photon. Rev. 14 (2020) 2000257
McGloin, D., Droplet lasers: a review of current progress, Rep. Prog. Phys. 80 (2017) 054402
Gong, X. et al., Hydrogel Microlasers for Versatile Biomolecular Analysis Based on a Lasing Microarray, Advanced Photonics Research 1 (2020) 2000041
Humar, M., and Hyun Yun, S., Intracellular microlasers, Nat. Photon. 9 (2015) 572
Chen, L.-J. et al., Microfluidic fabrication of cholesteric liquid crystal core-shell structures toward magnetically transportable microlasers, Lab Chip 16 (2016) 1206
Richter, D., Marinčič, M., and Humar, M., Optical-resonance-assisted generation of super monodisperse microdroplets and microbeads with nanometer precision, Lab Chip (2020)
Nguyen, T. V., Nguyen, T. D., Pham, N. V., Nguyen, T.-A., and Ta, D. V., Monodisperse and size-tunable high-quality factor microsphere biolasers, Opt. Lett. 46 (2021) 2517
Ta, V. D. et al., Multicolor lasing prints, Appl. Phys. Lett. 107 (2015) 221103
Zhao, J. et al., Full-color laser displays based on organic printed microlaser arrays, Nat. Commun. 10 (2019) 870
Duan, R. et al., Dome-shaped mode lasing from liquid crystals for full-color lasers and high-sensitivity detection, Chem. Commun. 59 (2023) 1641
Chen, R., Ta, V. D., and Sun, H. D., Single Mode Lasing from Hybrid Hemispherical Microresonators, Sci. Rep. 2 (2012) 244
Tang, S. K. Y., Derda, R., Quan, Q., Lončar, M., and Whitesides, G. M., Continuously tunable microdroplet-laser in a microfluidic channel, Opt. Express 19 (2011) 2204
Takamura, K., Fischer, H., and Morrow, N. R., Physical properties of aqueous glycerol solutions, J. Pet. Sci. Eng. 98-99 (2012) 50
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with CIP agree with the following terms:- The manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. When a manuscript is accepted for publication, the author agrees to automatic transfer of the copyright to the editorial office.
- The manuscript should not be published elsewhere in any language without the consent of the copyright holders. Authors have the right to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of their work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their websites) prior to or during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges or/and greater number of citation to the to-be-published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Accepted 13-05-2024
Published 18-05-2024
