Inkjet-Printed Random Lasers

Abstract

Printing technology has led to a multitude of revolutions in design, conception, fabrication, and application of optoelectronics nowadays especially for wearables and one-off devices. Recent advances range from solar cells, batteries, sensors, LEDs, displays, biomedical widgets to smart tags. Inkjet-printed random lasers (IPRLs), demonstrated here, fill in the crucial but missing piece of the puzzle in printed optoelectronics as well as progress in laser research. A broad emission spectrum of IPRL inks covering more than 75% gamut of CIE color space is successfully exploited and well adopted by commercial desktop inkjet printers. Furthermore, based on the digital, ink-efficient, mask-free patterning, and drop-on-demand printing technique, a series of long-anticipated proofs-of-concept including on-chip laser lighting modules, red-yellow-green-blue pixel-based laser displays, and ink-crypto/laser-coded security printing technique are also demonstrated.