Remote control of random lasing using light-driven actuation of elastomeric medium

What is it about?

Random lasers are unique optical sources wherein an amplifying material in the presence of random scatterers can provide coherent emission. For practical application, however, one needs to control the emission properties of the random laser. To date, this issue has been typically addressed by either tuning the scattering properties of the disordered medium or by tailoring the gain profile of the amplifying medium. Following a completely different strategy, we presented the first demonstration of a composite random laser combining TiO2 scattering nanoparticles in a photoresponsive elastomeric body made of liquid crystal elastomers. By inducing a splayed alignment in the elastomeric material, we were able to control the motion of the random lasing medium using an external, non-contact light stimulus that drives its body in and out a pump laser. As a consequence, random lasing modes were excited or de-excited via a fully reversible remotely-induced motile actuation of the laser itself. By doing so, we defined a new class of liquid-crystal elastomer random laser where light-induced motion can control the output emission.

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