Random lasing from dye doped polymer within biological source scatters: The pomponia imperatorial cicada wing random nanostructures

Photonic structures found in biological organisms are often startling in their complexity and surprising in their optical function. In this paper we explore whether biologically derived nanostructures can be utilized to form the resonator structures of organic dye doped polymer lasers. Surprisingly, we find that the random nanostructures on the wing of the pomponia imperatoria cicada can support coherent random lasing when covered with a layer of dye doped polymer film. Due to the scattering role of cicada wing nanostructures, the device emits a resonant multimode peak centered at a wavelength of 605 nm with a mode linewidth of <0.55 nm and exhibits a threshold excitation intensity as low as 70.4 mW/cm2. Our results indicate that abundant, naturally occurring biological nanostructures can provide effective platforms for the study of random lasing, and that the laser properties may provide insight into the degree of disorder exhibited by these natural structures.

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► Photonic structures in some biological organisms can support coherent random lasing.
► The lasing threshold excitation intensity is as low as 70.4 mW/cm2.
► Our results indicate biological nanostructure can provide platforms for lasing study.