Abstract
Dye-doped nematic liquid crystals support random lasing under optical pumping, as well as reorientational optical spatial solitons acting as all-optical waveguides. By synergistically combining these two responses in a collinear pump-soliton geometry, the resulting soliton-enhanced random laser exhibits higher conversion efficiency and better directional properties. After a short account on random lasers and solitons in nematic liquid crystals–nematicons–we describe our experimental results on nematicon-molded random lasers.
Highlights
The last decades have witnessed substantial experimental and theoretical progress on random lasing in disordered systems, i. e., cavityless lasing via recurrent scattering [1]
After recalling the main features of reorientational nematicons and summarizing the state-of-the-art in the emerging field of random lasers, we describe how to mold and control the flow of random laser light by employing spatial solitons at a nonresonant wavelength in stimuli responsive complex fluids such as dye-doped nematic liquid crystals
We report our recent findings on demonstrating directional features and modulability of efficient random lasers which exhibit good beam quality and can be angularly steered via externally applied fields
Summary
The last decades have witnessed substantial experimental and theoretical progress on random lasing in disordered systems, i. e., cavityless lasing via recurrent scattering [1]. The last decades have witnessed substantial experimental and theoretical progress on random lasing in disordered systems, i. The idea that a highly coherent process – such as laser action – can originate in disordered and diffusive systems has triggered several discussions about the fundamental mechanisms and the coherence of lasers. Spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals –nematicons- have reached a mature level of physical and technical understanding [2]. After recalling the main features of reorientational nematicons and summarizing the state-of-the-art in the emerging field of random lasers, we describe how to mold and control the flow of random laser light by employing spatial solitons at a nonresonant wavelength in stimuli responsive complex fluids such as dye-doped nematic liquid crystals. We report our recent findings on demonstrating directional features and modulability of efficient random lasers which exhibit good beam quality and can be angularly steered via externally applied fields
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