Combining eggshell membrane biomaterial and polymeric film as a platform for random laser applications

Abstract

The miniaturized and biocompatible platforms for laser-like emission have been vastly searched in recent times. Therefore, we studied that random laser (RL) features for the dye-doped polymer are affected by the well-known structural differences in the eggshell membrane (ESM). This membrane is composed of three 0.8 μm diameter high-density fiber layers (inner layers of the ESM: IESM) and six 1.1 μm diameter sparse fibers layers (outer layers of the ESM: OESM). The addition of the membrane in 10−5 M Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G)-doped polymer was performed in such a way that the excitation energy for RL measurements hits the inner ESM layers for one sample and hits the outer ESM layers for the other sample. For comparison purposes, a sample without the membrane was also fabricated with the same Rh6G concentration. RL emissions were obtained for all samples with emission linewidth smaller than 10 nm. However, the sample excited in the inner ESM presented a higher emission intensity compared with the other two samples due to the different fiber conformation between the ESM layers, which can increase the RL efficiency just by carefully engineering the RL platforms.