Monodisperse and size-tunable high-quality factor microsphere biolasers.

Microsphere biolasers have attracted a great deal of interest due to their potential for biosensing and cell tracking. Here we demonstrate a novel, to the best of our knowledge, microfluidic-based fabrication of nearly monodisperse dye-doped protein microsphere biolasers with a tunable size from 150 to 50 µm. In particular, for an 85 µm-bead, about 70% of the fabricated microspheres have the same size of 85 µm. Under optical pumping, the fabricated microspheres emit whispering gallery mode lasing emission with a lasing threshold of ${{7}}\;\unicode{x00B5} {\rm{J}}\;{{\rm{mm}}^{- 2}}$ and quality ($\!Q$) factor up to 3000. Interestingly, microspheres with the same size exhibit a similar lasing threshold and spectrum. The result indicates a high reproducibility of microsphere biolasers by the microfluidic-based fabrication technique. This Letter provides an effective method for mass production of high-$Q$ factor microsphere biolasers which is a significant step toward real biosensing and medical applications.

Protein-based microsphere biolasers fabricated by dehydration.

Biolasers made of biological materials have attracted considerable research attention due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability, and have the potential for biosensing and biointegration. However, the current fabrication methods of biolasers suffer from several limitations, such as complicated processing, time-consuming and environmentally unfriendly nature. In this study, a novel approach with green processes for fabricating solid-state microsphere biolasers has been demonstrated. By dehydration via a modified Microglassification™ technology, dye-doped bovine serum albumin (BSA) droplets could be quickly (less than 10 minutes) and easily changed into solid microspheres with diameters ranging from 10 µm to 150 µm. The size of the microspheres could be effectively controlled by changing either the concentration of the BSA solution or the diameter of the initial droplets. The fabricated microspheres could act as efficient microlasers under an optical pulse excitation. A lasing threshold of 7.8 µJ mm-2 and a quality (Q) factor of about 1700 to 3100 were obtained. The size dependence of lasing characteristics was investigated, and the results showed a good agreement with whispering gallery mode (WGM) theory. Our findings contribute an effective technique for the fabrication of high-Q factor microlasers that may be potential for applications in biological and chemical sensors.