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Electrically driven random lasing from a modified Fabry–Pérot laser diode

Nature Photonics volume 16, pages 219–225 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Random lasers are intriguing devices with promising applications as light sources for imaging, sensing, super-resolution spectral analysis or complex networks engineering. Random lasers can be obtained from optically pumped dyes, optical fibres and crystals or electrically pumped semiconductor heterostructures. Semiconductor random lasers are usually fabricated by introducing scattering defects into the active layer, adding a degree of complexity to the fabrication process and losing the ease of realization potentially offered by disordered structures. The ready availability of electrically pumped random lasers, avoiding a costly fabrication approach, would boost the use of these devices in research and applications. Here we realize an incoherent semiconductor random laser by simply processing the output mirror of an off-the-shelf Fabry–Pérot laser diode via controlled laser ablation. Optical feedback provided by the intact back mirror and the ablated front mirror results in multimode random lasing with low spatial coherence and disordered angular patterns. This result constitutes a proof of principle for future ground-breaking technology developments in the field of random lasers.

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Fig. 1: The modified laser diode.
Fig. 2: Modified FP laser diode emission.
Fig. 3: Speckle contrasts of the original and modified laser diodes.
Fig. 4: Simulation results.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The MATLAB codes developed to execute the calculations presented in this paper are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through the project RTI2018-093921-B-C41 (SMOOTH).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Antonio Consoli, Niccolò Caselli & Cefe López

  2. ETSI de Telecomunicación, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain

    Antonio Consoli

  3. Departamento de Química Física, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid, Spain

    Niccolò Caselli

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  1. Antonio Consoli
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A.C. conceived the device and designed the experiments. A.C. and N.C. performed the experiments. All authors analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. C.L. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Antonio Consoli, Niccolò Caselli or Cefe López.

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Nature Photonics thanks Diederik Wiersma and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Consoli, A., Caselli, N. & López, C. Electrically driven random lasing from a modified Fabry–Pérot laser diode. Nat. Photon. 16, 219–225 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-021-00946-0

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