Electrically pumped network random lasers
Random lasers based on disorder and multiple scattering are alternative means to generate laser light. Although random lasers have been studied for over thirty years, very few practical applications utilizing random lasers have been realised. The main difficulty with random lasers has been achieving electrical pumping with high conversion efficiency and obtaining directional beam output. Resolving these difficulties will make random lasers practical and will open up many new applications, such as in optical computing and image projection. In this project we propose to develop an electrically pumped network random laser. This new type of laser will have high conversion efficiency and directional beam output, and can be easily integrated on a chip with waveguides. This project is at the cross-roads of nanophotonics, complex systems and network science, and thus is quite multi-disciplinary in nature. Results from this project will be technologically significant and will enable rapid commercialisation of random lasers, which has thus far been limited.