Single cell induced optical confinement in biological lasers
Abstract
Biological single cell lasers have shown great potential for fundamental research and next generation sensing applications. In this study, the potential of fluorescent biological cells as refractive index landscapes and active optical elements is investigated using a combined Fourier- and hyperspectral imaging technique. We show that the refractive index contrast between cell and surrounding leads to three dimensional confinement of photons inside living cells. The Fourier- and real-space emission characteristics of these biological lasers are closely related and can be predicted from one another. Investigations of the lasing threshold for different energy and momentum position in Fourier-space give insight into the fundamental creation of longitudinal and transverse lasing modes within the cell. These findings corroborate the potential of living biological materials for precision engineering of photonic structures and may pave the way towards low threshold polariton lasing from single cells.
Citation
Karl , M , Dietrich , C P , Schubert , M , Samuel , I D W , Turnbull , G A & Gather , M C 2017 , ' Single cell induced optical confinement in biological lasers ' , Journal of Physics D : Applied Physics , vol. 50 , no. 8 , 084005 . https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa5367 , https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa5367
Publication
Journal of Physics D : Applied Physics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-3727Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Description
We acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC StG ABLASE, 640012), the Scottish Funding Council (via SUPA) and the European Union Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (PCIG12-GA-2012-334407). M.K. acknowledges funding from the EPSRC DTG (EP/M506631/1). M.S. acknowledges funding from the European Commission for a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (659213). I.D.W.S. acknowledges funding from a Royal Society Wolfson research merit award.Collections
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