Dye lasing in optically manipulated liquid aerosols

Abstract

We present dye lasing from optically manipulated glycerol-water aerosols with diameters ranging between 7.7 and 11.0 mu m confined in optical tweezers. While being optically trapped near the focal point of an infrared laser, the droplets stained with Rhodamine B were pumped with a Q-switched green laser and their fluorescence emission spectra featuring whispering gallery modes (WGMs) were recorded with a spectrograph. Nonlinear dependence of the intensity of the droplet WGMs on the pump laser fluence indicates dye lasing. The average wavelength of the lasing WGMs could be tuned between 600 and 630 nm by adjusting the droplet size. These results may lead to new ways of probing airborne particles, exploiting the high sensitivity of stimulated emission to small perturbations in the droplet laser cavity and the gain medium.