Microfluidic dye lasers based on microstructured optical fibres

In recent years, various opto-fluidic devices have emerged as a tool for sensing, imaging and spectroscopy applications. There has also bee increasing interest in fluidic dye lasers that can act as efficient integrated sources for lab-on-a-chip spectroscopy applications. In this paper, we report microfluidic lasers based on optical fibres, where lasing is achieved without the need of external mirrors, allowing simple, rapid fabrication of compact, visible laser sources. We explore two geometries: capillary tubes of 2 mum core diameter (Polymicro Technologies), and photonic crystal fibres that comprise approximately 50 cores of 3.7 mum diameter. The latter was based on a commercial photonic crystal fibre ESM-12-01 (Crystal Fibre) and demonstrates the potential for multiple laterally integrated fluidic lasers. In both geometries, an advantageous spectral selectivity is observed despite the long cavity lengths.