Manipulating Random Lasing Correlations in Doped Liquid Crystals

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to dynamically control the intensity correlations in random lasing within doped liquid crystals, using optical pumping near the lasing threshold, with potential applications in biomedical and communication fields.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control random lasing correlations in liquid crystals by varying pump energy, linking correlations with lasing persistence.

Findings

Correlations can be tuned by pump energy near threshold.

Lévy statistics characterize emission spectra.

Correlations are linked to lasing persistence.

Abstract

Random lasers are highly configurable light sources that are promising for imaging and photonic integration. In this study, random lasing action was generated by optically pumping MBBA liquid crystals infiltrated with gold nanoparticles and laser dye (pyrromethene 597). By varying the pump energy near lasing threshold, we show that it is possible to control the intensity correlations between the random lasing modes. The correlations in the system were phenomenologically characterized using the L\'evy statistics of the emission spectra survival function. We also find that correlations and persistence of lasing action are correlated. These results demonstrate the possibility to dynamically control a key physical feature of random lasers, which may find applications in biomedical settings and network communications.