Optofluidic lasers are emerging building blocks with immense potential in the development of miniaturized light sources, integrated photonics, and sensors. The capability of on-demand lasing output with programmable and continuous wavelength tunability over a broad spectral range enables key functionalities in wavelength-division multiplexing and manipulation of light-matter interactions. However, the ability to control multicolor lasing characteristics within a small mode volume with high reconfigurability remains challenging. The color gamut is also restricted by the number of dyes and emission wavelength of existing materials. In this study, we introduce a fully programmable multicolor laser by encapsulating organic-dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal microdroplet lasers in an optofluidic fiber. A mechanism for tuning laser emission wavelengths was proposed by manipulating the topologically induced nanoshell structures in microdroplets with different chiral dopant concentrations. Precision control of distinctive lasing wavelengths and colors covering the entire visible spectra was achieved, including monochromatic lasing, dual-color lasing, tri-color lasing, and white colored lasing with tunable color temperatures. Our findings revealed a CIE color map with 145% more perceptible colors than the standard RGB space, shedding light on the development of programmable lasers, multiplexed encoding, and biomedical detection.

Optical vortices with tunable properties in multiple dimensions are highly desirable in modern photonics, particularly for broadly tunable wavelengths and topological charges at the micrometer scale. Compared to solid-state approaches, here we demonstrate tunable optical vortices through the fusion of optofluidics and vortex beams in which the handedness, topological charges, and lasing wavelengths could be fully adjusted and dynamically controlled. Nanogroove structures inscribed in Fabry–Pérot optofluidic microcavities were proposed to generate optical vortices by converting Hermite–Gaussian laser modes. Topological charges could be controlled by tuning the lengths of the nanogroove structures. Vortex laser beams spanning a wide spectral band (430–630 nm) were achieved by alternating different liquid gain materials. Finally, dynamic switching of vortex laser wavelengths in real-time was realized through an optofluidic vortex microlaser device. The findings provide a robust yet flexible approach for generating on-chip vortex sources with multiple dimensions, high tunability, and reconfigurability.

Laser emission imaging is an emerging technology, which offers immense potential for revealing biological behavior with enhanced light‐matter interactions and signal contrast. State‐of‐the‐art lasers mostly provide physical information of cells, without being able to perform various biochemical functions or biological information of cell. Here this need is addressed by introducing hybrid liquid crystal microlaser resonators, an approach for label‐free laser emission imaging of secreted molecules associated with various types of cell–environment interaction. Liquid crystal microdroplets are designed as signal amplifiers to report subtle molecular events sandwiched in a Fabry–Pérot microcavity. Through the integration with a galvometer scanner, dynamic information of cell physiological processes is recorded through different lasing wavelengths. The capability of detecting small molecule, redox oxygen species, to larger molecules such as overexpressed proteins is demonstrated by using pancreatic cancer cell line. The capability of monitoring cell responses to anticancer drug is also illustrated. The proposed concept can be extended to multiplexed biolasers for investigating cell signaling, cell–cell interactions, and drug screening.

Microlasers integrated with biological systems have received tremendous attention for their intense light intensity and narrow linewidth recently, serving as a powerful tool for studying complex dynamics and interactions in...

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