Evanescent-wave-excited quasi-two-dimensional random lasing

Opt Lett. 2006 Sep 15;31(18):2722-4. doi: 10.1364/ol.31.002722.

Abstract

We report on random lasing from a dye-scatterer system directly excited by evanescent modes formed over a dielectric-dielectric interface. The system is quasi-two-dimensional because of the subwavelength exponential decay of the excitation energy. Spectral narrowing by a factor of approximately 13 was obtained under diffusive scattering conditions. The peak intensity exhibited a unique dual-saturation behavior due to the localized nature of the excitation. We observed a reduction of threshold for samples with a higher dye concentration because of a larger excitation-state occupation number within the same interaction volume.