Laser device characterized in that it comprises, as gain medium, a film of colloidal nanocrystals of semiconductor material, wherein said nanocrystals are two-dimensional nanocrystals suitable for forming quantum wells for confinement of the charge carriers in the nanocrystals and having a biexciton gain mechanism.

Embodiments include a gain system and method. The system includes a gain medium with a plurality of plasmonic apparatus. Each plasmonic apparatus includes a substrate having a first plasmonic surface, a plasmonic nanoparticle having a second plasmonic surface, and a dielectric-filled gap between the first plasmonic surface and the second plasmonic surface. A plasmonic cavity is created by an assembly of the first plasmonic surface, the second plasmonic surface, and the dielectric-filled gap, and has a first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 and second fundamental wavelength .sub.2. Fluorescent particles are located in the dielectric-filled gap. Each fluorescent particle has an absorption spectrum at the first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 and an emission spectrum at the second fundamental wavelength .sub.2. An excitation applied to the gain medium at the first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 produces an amplified electromagnetic wave emission at the second resonant wavelength .sub.2.

Optically pumpable waveguide amplifier with amplifier having tapered input and output. The present invention provides for a optically pumpable waveguide amplification device that includes: a cladding material; a passive optical waveguide embedded in the cladding material that has no optical amplification functionality; and an active optical waveguide having an input portion, a middle portion and an output portion, including: a gain material with a higher refractive index than the passive optical waveguide, wherein the middle portion of the active optical waveguide is embedded in the cladding material, and faces the passive wave guide, such that a lower surface of the middle portion is an upper surface of the passive optical waveguide. There is also provided a device for optically pumpable waveguide amplification and a method for signal radiation amplification.

Embodiments include a gain system and method. The system includes a gain medium with a plurality of plasmonic apparatus. Each plasmonic apparatus includes a substrate having a first plasmonic surface, a plasmonic nanoparticle having a second plasmonic surface, and a dielectric-filled gap between the first plasmonic surface and the second plasmonic surface. A plasmonic cavity is created by an assembly of the first plasmonic surface, the second plasmonic surface, and the dielectric-filled gap, and has a first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 and second fundamental wavelength .sub.2. Fluorescent particles are located in the dielectric-filled gap. Each fluorescent particle has an absorption spectrum at the first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 and an emission spectrum at the second fundamental wavelength .sub.2. An excitation applied to the gain medium at the first fundamental wavelength .sub.1 produces an amplified electromagnetic wave emission at the second resonant wavelength .sub.2.

Laser device characterized in that it comprises, as gain medium, a film of colloidal nanocrystals of semiconductor material, wherein said nanocrystals are two-dimensional nanocrystals suitable for forming quantum wells for confinement of the charge carriers in the nanocrystals and having a biexciton gain mechanism.

An injection-seeded whispering gallery mode optical amplifier. The amplifier includes a micro or nanoscale whispering gallery mode resonator configured to amplify a whispering gallery mode therein via a gain medium separated from the whispering gallery mode resonator but within the evanescent field of the whispering gallery mode resonator. A pump stimulates the whispering gallery mode. A plasmonic surface couples power into the whispering gallery mode resonator.

Provided is a laser oscillation element including a cholesteric liquid crystal layer, in which even in a case where the intensity of excitation light is weak, laser oscillation can be induced. The laser oscillation element includes a cholesteric liquid crystal layer obtained by cholesteric alignment of a liquid crystal compound, in which in a cross-section of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer observed with a scanning electron microscope, bright portions and dark portions derived from the cholesteric liquid crystalline phase are tilted with respect to a main surface of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer, the cholesteric liquid crystal layer includes a colorant that emits light by excitation, and a luminescence wavelength range of the colorant and a selective reflection wavelength range of the cholesteric liquid crystal layer at least partially overlap each other.

A degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) squeezed light apparatus includes one or more pump beams, a probe beam, a vapor cell, a repump beam, and a detector. The one or more pump beams includes an input power of no greater than about 150 mW. The vapor cell includes an atomic vapor configured to interact with overlapped pump and probe beams to generate an amplified probe beam and a conjugate beam. The repump beam is configured to optically pump the atomic vapor to a ground state and decrease atomic decoherence of the atomic vapor. The detector is configured to measure squeezing due to quantum correlations between the amplified probe beam and the conjugate beam. The one or more pump beams, the probe beam, and the repump beam are configured to generate two-mode squeezed light by DFWM with squeezing of at least 3 dB below shot noise.

A first layer, a first spacer layer, and a second layer of a semiconductor wafer can be etched to produce a plurality of columnar structures extending from the substrate layer and including a first optical cavity situated about the first gain medium, a second optical cavity situated about the second gain medium, and a first spacer region contacting the first gain medium and the second gain medium. Also, a photonic microparticle formed from a layered semiconductor wafer and of a columnar structure having a first optical cavity situated about a first gain medium, a second optical cavity situated about a second gain medium, and a first spacer region contacting the first gain medium and the second gain medium. The first optical cavity and the second optical cavity in the photonic microparticle are each capable of generating laser light with a distinct spectral peak when energetically excited.

Objects and/or grouped emitters are anti-symmetrically excited. The anti-symmetric radiation emitted by the objects generate an interference pattern with a node in the spacing between the objects. The spacing may be sub-wavelength and/or below a resolution limit for the emitted radiation. Samples within the spacing may be detected via distortion to the inference pattern and visualized (including sub-resolution limit features) either directly or through reconstruction analysis from the interference pattern.