Dye lasing in optically manipulated liquid aerosols.

We report lasing in airborne, rhodamine B-doped glycerol-water droplets with diameters ranging between 7.7 and 11.0 µm, which were localized using optical tweezers. While being trapped near the focal point of an infrared laser, the droplets were pumped with a Q-switched green laser. Our experiments revealed nonlinear dependence of the intensity of the droplet whispering gallery modes (WGMs) on the pump laser fluence, indicating dye lasing. The average wavelength of the lasing WGMs could be tuned between 600 and 630 nm by changing 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.

Prolonged Raman lasing in size-stabilized salt-water microdroplets on a superhydrophobic surface.

We demonstrate prolonged Raman lasing from individual salt-water microdroplets with 10-20 microm diameters located on a superhydrophobic surface. The mechanism is based on the absorption heating of a 1064 nm cw IR laser and the resonant heating of a 532 nm pulsed, pump laser. A clear hysteresis is observed in the lasing intensity as the droplet size is photothermally tuned by the IR laser, indicating a self-stabilization mechanism due to the resonant absorption of the pump laser. Using this mechanism, Raman lasing near 650 nm is sustained for up to 25 min, approximately 1000 times longer than lasing durations reported in previous studies.

Photothermal self-stability and optical bistability of single NaCl-water microdroplets on a superhydrophobic surface.

A self-stabilization mechanism locking the size of single inorganic salt (NaCl)-water microdroplets that are standing on a superhydrophobic surface and kept in a humidity-controlled chamber is demonstrated. The effect is based on the hysteretic behavior of a photothermal tuning cycle caused by the whispering gallery mode (WGM) absorption resonances that are observed when scanning the power of an infrared laser focused at the rim of a microdroplet. When locked, the microdroplet size and WGM spectrum are resilient to environmental perturbations and can be maintained for hours as the mechanism does not rely on a photobleachable dye. The bistable nature of the system is also demonstrated, enabling reversible switching between two sizes. A rate equation-based thermodynamical model of the hysteretic behavior is provided, giving good agreement with the experimental results. Our results may be used to establish stable experimental conditions for ultrahigh resolution spectroscopy of microdroplets. Other optical and biological applications that require exactly size-matched microdroplets can also benefit from the demonstrated self-stabilization mechanism.

Reversible photothermal tuning of a salty water microdroplet.

A fully reversible photothermal tuning of an inorganic salt (NaCl)-water microdroplet standing on a superhydrophobic surface is demonstrated. The size change of the microdroplet is caused by a focused infrared laser beam in a humidity-controlled chamber and a fully reversible large spectral tuning up to approximately 40 nm is achieved. The evaporation and growth of the microdroplet are modeled using a lumped system formulation of mass and energy conservations and a good agreement is observed between the experimental and theoretical results.

Large spectral tuning of a water-glycerol microdroplet by a focused laser: characterization and modeling.

Large spectral tuning of a water-glycerol microdroplet standing on a superhydrophobic surface by local heating with a focused infrared laser is studied both experimentally by optical spectroscopy and computationally using a lumped system formulation of the mass and heat transfer between the microdroplet and the chamber. The effects of optical scattering force, chamber humidity, size of microdroplet and laser power on the tuning mechanism are examined. The reversibility of the tuning mechanism is also studied. In spite of its negligibly small volatility compared to that of water, irreversibility is found to be mainly caused by evaporation of glycerol. It is also found that reversibility increases dramatically with the relative water and glycerol humidities, and spectral tuning can be made almost fully reversible when the chamber is saturated with glycerol vapor and the relative water humidity approaches unity. Some hysteresis effects are observed, especially in large microdroplets, and this behavior is attributed to the whispering-gallery mode resonances in laser absorption. The time response of the tuning mechanism is also analyzed both experimentally and computationally. The technique presented can find applications in optical communication systems, and can be used in fundamental studies in cavity quantum electrodynamics and in characterizing liquid aerosols on a surface.