By mimicking the characteristics of living systems, self-organizing lasers could lead to new materials for sensing, computing, light sources and displays.
While many synthetic materials have advanced properties, they have a long way to go when it comes to combining the versatility and functionality of living materials that can be adapted to their conditions. For example, bone and muscle in the human body constantly reorganize their structure and structure to better sustain changing weight and activity levels.
Now, researchers from Imperial College London and University College London have demonstrated the first automatically self-organizing laser device, which can reconfigure when conditions change.
The innovation, reported in Nature Physics, will help enable the development of smart photonic materials capable of better mimicking the properties of biological matter, such as responsiveness, adaptation, self-healing and collective behavior.
Co-lead author Professor Ricardo Sapienza, from the Department of Physics at Imperial, said: “The lasers, which power most of our techniques, are designed to have precise and stable properties from crystalline materials. We asked ourselves whether we One can create a laser with the ability to mix structure and functionality, to reconfigure itself and collaborate like organic materials.
“Our laser system can reconfigure and collaborate, thus enabling the first step towards simulating the ever-evolving relationship between the structure and functionality of living materials.”
Lasers are devices that amplify light to produce a specific type of light. The team’s experiment involved microparticles scattered in a liquid with high ‘gain’ in self-assembling lasers – the ability to amplify light. Once enough of these microparticles have gathered together, they can use external energy to ‘lace’ them – producing laser light.
An external laser was used to heat a ‘Janus’ particle (a particle coated with a light-absorbing material on one side), around which the microparticles collected. The lasing created by these microparticle clusters can be turned on and off by varying the intensity of the external laser, which in turn controls the size and density of the clusters.
The team also showed how the lasing cluster could be moved in space by heating various Janus particles, demonstrating the system’s adaptability. Janus particles can also cooperate, forming clusters that have properties beyond the simple addition of two clusters, such as changing their shape and boosting their lasing power.
Co-lead author Dr. Giorgio Volpe, from the Department of Chemistry at UCL, said: “Nowadays, lasers are used as a course in pharmaceutical, telecommunications and industrial production. Applications include lasers with life-like properties, This will enable the development of robust, autonomous and sustainable next-generation materials and devices for sensing non-conventional computing, novel light sources and displays.”
Next, the team will study how to improve the autonomous behavior of the lasers to render them even more life-like. The technology’s first application may be for next-generation electronic inks for smart displays.
read all breaking news, today’s fresh newswatch top videos And live TV Here.