Electrically driven random lasing from a modified Fabry–Pérot laser diode

Random lasers are intriguing devices with promising applications as light sources for imaging, sensing, super-resolution spectral analysis or complex networks engineering. Random lasers can be obtained from optically pumped dyes, optical fibres and crystals or electrically pumped semiconductor heterostructures. Semiconductor random lasers are usually fabricated by introducing scattering defects into the active layer, adding a degree of complexity to the fabrication process and losing the ease of realization potentially offered by disordered structures. The ready availability of electrically pumped random lasers, avoiding a costly fabrication approach, would boost the use of these devices in research and applications. Here we realize an incoherent semiconductor random laser by simply processing the output mirror of an off-the-shelf Fabry–Pérot laser diode via controlled laser ablation. Optical feedback provided by the intact back mirror and the ablated front mirror results in multimode random lasing with low spatial coherence and disordered angular patterns. This result constitutes a proof of principle for future ground-breaking technology developments in the field of random lasers. Researchers present a cost-effective approach to make electrically driven random lasers, by modifying commercially available laser diodes.