Random lasing action generation in polymer nanofiber with small diameters

Abstract

The light-propagation ability of fiber depends mostly on fiber diameter. Fibers with a diameter below 200 nm have poor capability of exhibiting light coupling and laser radiation. Therefore, we modified nanofibers with a diameter of 150 nm by nanoparticle doping and morphological modification to enhance scattering. A finite-difference time-domain method was used to analyze the coupling of light into fibers and its possible distribution. The simulations demonstrated that single and multiple modes were highly influenced by the diameter values. The results of the study contribute to the realization of random lasers in nanofibers with extremely small diameters.

A random laser based on electrospun polymeric composite nanofibers with dual-size distribution

“…These filiform structures with a refractive index of about 1.5 provide waveguiding/scattering along the fibers as well as multidirectional propagation, due to their disordered structures 16 which depends on the fiber diameter scale. 17 The importance of production of light-emitting electrospun nanofibers has been proved in the literature by the increasing, but still small, number of publications exploring random lasing by controlling the local disorder from doping with metal oxide nanoparticles such as TiO 2 ( ref. 18 ) or exploiting different organic dyes as the gain medium.…”

“…The development of fibers with dual-size distribution applied as a support for the production of flexible RLs represents an important condition in which waveguiding and scattering can be combined in a mirror-free prototype for laser-like light emission. Gang Lv et al 17 reported that fiber-type cylindrical waveguides (PVA-based fibers) have limitations in presenting RL behavior for fiber diameters below 255 nm. In their case, it was necessary to add titanium dioxide to the precursors (polymer melts) to increase their scattering properties, allowing RL emission in fibers with a diameter of the order of 150 nm.…”

“…31 )) in eqn (1) , it is possible to identify the limit (in terms of the nanofiber diameter) for light propagation in nanofibers in the range of diameters between 208 nm and 251 nm. Based on a numeric analysis performed in ref. 17 it was observed that above this critical diameter, light is waveguided into fibers (due to the higher refractive index in comparison with air).…”

Laser Systems and Networks with Organic Nanowires and Nanofibers

“…Additionally, the lasing emission from aligned or random NFs might clearly have very different output directionality and polarization. In fact, NFs aligned within uniaxial arrays have much better benefit from waveguiding‐assisted ASE along the fiber length, whereas NFs in random mats are affected by several mechanisms of light scattering . Even individual NWs can exhibit random lasing, promoted by light scattering and partial reflections at defects or cracks along their length …”

Properties of Random Lasers in a hollow core photonic crystal fiber

“…Turitsyn et al [9] have also reviewed random distributed feedback fiber lasers in terms of theoretical analysis, experimental studies, potential and perspective. Other new types of random fiber lasers consist of artificially controlled backscattering random fiber lasers [10], electrospun polymeric composite nanofibers [11], random lasers in a polymer nanofiber with small diameters [12] and Bragg-grating-assisted random fiber lasers [13].…”