Femtosecond lasing from a fluorescent protein in a one dimensional random cavity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ultrafast random lasing from a fluorescent protein within a one-dimensional layered random cavity, achieving significantly lower lasing thresholds with femtosecond excitation compared to nanosecond pulses.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence of femtosecond-lased fluorescent proteins in a one-dimensional random cavity, highlighting ultrafast lasing with reduced excitation thresholds.

Findings

Femtosecond pulses enable lasing at thresholds two orders of magnitude lower than nanosecond pulses.

Lasing occurs when the fluorescent protein is embedded in a layered random medium and optically excited perpendicularly.

Ultrafast excitation significantly enhances lasing efficiency in the system.

Abstract

We present evidence of ultrafast random lasing from the fluorescent protein DsRed2 embedded in a random one-dimensional cavity. Lasing is achieved when a purified protein solution, placed inside a layered random medium, is optically excited with a femtosecond pump pulse in the direction perpendicular to the plane of random layers. We demonstrate that pumping with ultrashort pulses resulted in a lasing threshold two orders of magnitude lower than that found for nanosecond excitation.