Researchers have develop a self-organising laser system that can reconfigure according to the conditions, replicating the ability of living materials. This discovery is likely to help in creating smart photonic materials which would better mimic the properties of biological matter such as self-healing, collective behaviour, and adaptation.
As lasers are use to produce a different form of light by amplifying light, researchers, at the Imperial College London, have develop self-assembling lasers consisting of microparticles disperse in a liquid with high gain or the ability to amplify light.
In the study, publish in Nature, the team use an external laser to heat up a Janus particle, which was coat with light-absorbing material on one side.
The microparticle clusters gather around the coating and the lasing thus create could be turn on and off by tweaking the intensity of the external laser.
Co-lead author of the study, Professor Riccardo Sapienza from the Department of Physics at Imperial Said :
“Lasers, which power most of our technologies, are designed from crystalline materials to have precise and static properties. We ask ourselves if we could create a laser with the ability to blend structure and functionality, to reconfigure itself and cooperate as biological materials do,”.
The researchers have demonstrated the adaptability of their laser system by showing that it could be transferred in space by heating different Janus particles.
The Janus particles can also help create cluster particles that have greater properties than what is achieve by adding two clusters.
These include abilities like changing shape and boosting the laser power.
Riccardo Sapienza Said :
“Our laser system can reconfigure and cooperate, thus enabling a first step towards emulating the ever-evolving relationship between structure and functionality typical of living materials,”.
The team is now aiming to improve the lasers in order to give them more life-like properties.
Co-lead author Dr Giorgio Volpe hope that the laser could be use in developing next-generation materials and devices for sensing applications, novel light sources, and non-conventional computing, among many others.
