Abstract
Random lasers (RLs), which possess peculiar advantages (e.g., emission and coherence tunable) over traditional lasers with optical resonators, have witnessed rapid development in the past decades. However, it is still a challenge to tune the lasing peak of an RL over a wide range. Here, a temperature-dependent Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) RL is demonstrated in pyrromethene 597 (PM597, “donor”) and Nile blue (NB, “acceptor”) doped chiral liquid crystals. By changing the temperature that drives the liquid crystal bandgap shift, our RL device exhibits a lasing output change from 560 nm (yellow) to 700 nm (red). While the intrinsic FRET efficiency between PM597 and NB is relatively low, the red lasing is weak. By introducing gold nanorods (GNRs) into these RL devices and utilizing GNRs’ localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect, the efficiency of FRET transfer is increased by 68.9%, thereby reducing the threshold of the RL devices. By tuning the longitudinal LSPR to match the emission wavelength of NB, the best 200-fold lasing intensity enhancement is recorded. Our findings open a pathway toward realizing LSPR-enhanced FRET tunable RLs and broaden the range of their possible exploration in photonics research and technologies.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 066101 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | APL Photonics |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 1 Jun 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12174002, 11874012, 11404087, 11874126, and 51771186), Excellent Scientific Research and Innovation Team of Anhui Province (Grant No. 2022AH010003), the innovation project for the Returned Overseas Scholars of Anhui Province (Grant No. 2021LCX011), the Key Research and Development Plan of Anhui Province (Grant No. 202104a05020059), the University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province (Grant No. GXXT-2020-052), and the project of the State Key Laboratory of Environment-Friendly Energy Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology (Grant No. 19FKSY0111).
Copyright 2023 the Authors. All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords
- Computer Networks and Communications
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics