Adaptive pumping for spectral control of random lasers

Nicolas Bachelard; Sylvain Gigan; Xavier Noblin; Patrick Sebbah

doi:10.1038/nphys2939

Adaptive pumping for spectral control of random lasers

Nicolas Bachelard, Sylvain Gigan, Xavier Noblin, Patrick Sebbah

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

182 Scopus citations

Abstract

A laser is not necessarily a sophisticated device: pumping an amplifying medium randomly filled with scatterers makes a perfectly viable â ̃ random laserâ ™. The absence of mirrors greatly simplifies laser design, but control over the emission wavelength and directionality is lost, seriously hindering prospects for this otherwise simple laser. Recently, we proposed an approach to tame random lasers, inspired by coherent light control in complex media. Here, we implement this method in an optofluidic random laser where modes are spatially extended and overlap, making individual mode selection impossible, a priori. We show experimentally that control over laser emission can be regained even in this extreme case. By actively shaping the optical pump within the random laser, single-mode operation at any selected wavelength is achieved with spectral selectivity down to 0.06 nm and more than 10 dB side-lobe rejection. This method paves the way towards versatile tunable and controlled random lasers as well as the taming of other laser sources.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	426-431
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature Physics
Volume	10
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2939
State	Published - Jun 2014
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank J. P. Huignard, S. Bhaktha and J. Andreasen for useful discussions. We thank Y. Izmaylov-Mavrikova for her help in the sample microfabrication. P.S., N.B. and S.G. are grateful to the LABEX WIFI (Laboratory of Excellence within the French Program ‘Investments for the Future’) under reference ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL*. P.S. is grateful to the ANR under Grant No. ANR-08-BLAN-0302-01 and to the Groupement de Recherche 3219 MesoImage. S.G. is funded by the European Research Council (grant number 278025).

Funding

We thank J. P. Huignard, S. Bhaktha and J. Andreasen for useful discussions. We thank Y. Izmaylov-Mavrikova for her help in the sample microfabrication. P.S., N.B. and S.G. are grateful to the LABEX WIFI (Laboratory of Excellence within the French Program ‘Investments for the Future’) under reference ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL*. P.S. is grateful to the ANR under Grant No. ANR-08-BLAN-0302-01 and to the Groupement de Recherche 3219 MesoImage. S.G. is funded by the European Research Council (grant number 278025).

Funders	Funder number
Seventh Framework Programme	278025
European Commission
Agence Nationale de la Recherche

Access to Document

10.1038/nphys2939

Cite this

@article{905ef6e5ae89442da8d94413c3cd5976,

title = "Adaptive pumping for spectral control of random lasers",

abstract = "A laser is not necessarily a sophisticated device: pumping an amplifying medium randomly filled with scatterers makes a perfectly viable {\^a}{\~ } random laser{\^a} {\texttrademark}. The absence of mirrors greatly simplifies laser design, but control over the emission wavelength and directionality is lost, seriously hindering prospects for this otherwise simple laser. Recently, we proposed an approach to tame random lasers, inspired by coherent light control in complex media. Here, we implement this method in an optofluidic random laser where modes are spatially extended and overlap, making individual mode selection impossible, a priori. We show experimentally that control over laser emission can be regained even in this extreme case. By actively shaping the optical pump within the random laser, single-mode operation at any selected wavelength is achieved with spectral selectivity down to 0.06 nm and more than 10 dB side-lobe rejection. This method paves the way towards versatile tunable and controlled random lasers as well as the taming of other laser sources.",

author = "Nicolas Bachelard and Sylvain Gigan and Xavier Noblin and Patrick Sebbah",

note = "Funding Information: We thank J. P. Huignard, S. Bhaktha and J. Andreasen for useful discussions. We thank Y. Izmaylov-Mavrikova for her help in the sample microfabrication. P.S., N.B. and S.G. are grateful to the LABEX WIFI (Laboratory of Excellence within the French Program {\textquoteleft}Investments for the Future{\textquoteright}) under reference ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL*. P.S. is grateful to the ANR under Grant No. ANR-08-BLAN-0302-01 and to the Groupement de Recherche 3219 MesoImage. S.G. is funded by the European Research Council (grant number 278025).",

year = "2014",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1038/nphys2939",

language = "אנגלית",

volume = "10",

pages = "426--431",

journal = "Nature Physics",

issn = "1745-2473",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Adaptive pumping for spectral control of random lasers

AU - Bachelard, Nicolas

AU - Gigan, Sylvain

AU - Noblin, Xavier

AU - Sebbah, Patrick

N1 - Funding Information: We thank J. P. Huignard, S. Bhaktha and J. Andreasen for useful discussions. We thank Y. Izmaylov-Mavrikova for her help in the sample microfabrication. P.S., N.B. and S.G. are grateful to the LABEX WIFI (Laboratory of Excellence within the French Program ‘Investments for the Future’) under reference ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL*. P.S. is grateful to the ANR under Grant No. ANR-08-BLAN-0302-01 and to the Groupement de Recherche 3219 MesoImage. S.G. is funded by the European Research Council (grant number 278025).

PY - 2014/6

Y1 - 2014/6

N2 - A laser is not necessarily a sophisticated device: pumping an amplifying medium randomly filled with scatterers makes a perfectly viable â ̃ random laserâ ™. The absence of mirrors greatly simplifies laser design, but control over the emission wavelength and directionality is lost, seriously hindering prospects for this otherwise simple laser. Recently, we proposed an approach to tame random lasers, inspired by coherent light control in complex media. Here, we implement this method in an optofluidic random laser where modes are spatially extended and overlap, making individual mode selection impossible, a priori. We show experimentally that control over laser emission can be regained even in this extreme case. By actively shaping the optical pump within the random laser, single-mode operation at any selected wavelength is achieved with spectral selectivity down to 0.06 nm and more than 10 dB side-lobe rejection. This method paves the way towards versatile tunable and controlled random lasers as well as the taming of other laser sources.

AB - A laser is not necessarily a sophisticated device: pumping an amplifying medium randomly filled with scatterers makes a perfectly viable â ̃ random laserâ ™. The absence of mirrors greatly simplifies laser design, but control over the emission wavelength and directionality is lost, seriously hindering prospects for this otherwise simple laser. Recently, we proposed an approach to tame random lasers, inspired by coherent light control in complex media. Here, we implement this method in an optofluidic random laser where modes are spatially extended and overlap, making individual mode selection impossible, a priori. We show experimentally that control over laser emission can be regained even in this extreme case. By actively shaping the optical pump within the random laser, single-mode operation at any selected wavelength is achieved with spectral selectivity down to 0.06 nm and more than 10 dB side-lobe rejection. This method paves the way towards versatile tunable and controlled random lasers as well as the taming of other laser sources.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901978698&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nphys2939

DO - 10.1038/nphys2939

M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???

SN - 1745-2473

VL - 10

SP - 426

EP - 431

JO - Nature Physics

JF - Nature Physics

IS - 6

ER -

Adaptive pumping for spectral control of random lasers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this