Multi-wavelength coherent random laser in bio-microfibers.

Zhendong Xie,Rui Ma,Xusheng Cheng,Junxi Zhang,Kang Xie,Jianquan Li,Zhijia Hu,Jiajun Ma,Taoping Hu

doi:10.1364/oe.384105

Abstract

In this paper, pure silk protein was extracted from Bombyx mori silks and fabricated into a new kind of disordered bio-microfiber structure using electrospinning technology. Coherent random lasing emission with low threshold was achieved in the silk fibroin fibers. The random lasing emission wavelength can be tuned in the range of 33 nm by controlling the pump location with different scattering strengths. Therefore, the bio-microfiber random lasers can be a wide spectral light source when the system is doped with a gain or energy transfer medium with a large fluorescence emission band. Application of the random lasers of the bio-microfibers as a low-coherence light source in speckle-free imaging had also been studied.

Highlights

Traces of natural silks can be found in many places in our daily lives
The most useful natural silks are Bombyx mori silks, which are mainly composed of sericin and degummed silks formed from proteins containing α-amino acids
Bombyx mori silks are the earliest known type of natural silk to be used by humans, and can be spun into clothing or made into silk fibroin solution after degumming, which is an essential process for rebuilding silks

Summary

Introduction

Traces of natural silks can be found in many places in our daily lives. The properties of natural silks differ. The most useful natural silks are Bombyx mori silks, which are mainly composed of sericin and degummed silks formed from proteins containing α-amino acids. There are differences between sericin and degummed silks in species of amino acids, molecular arrangement, and structure. Bombyx mori silks are the earliest known type of natural silk to be used by humans, and can be spun into clothing or made into silk fibroin solution after degumming, which is an essential process for rebuilding silks. Silk fibroin (SF) extracted from Bombyx mori cocoons can be used in many fields, such as photonics and medicine, due to its high biocompatibility of solution processing and tunability of the material properties [6]. Researchers have explored the feasibility of SF in new flexible photonic and optical devices [7]

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Conclusion