{"id":157585,"date":"2023-02-11T00:24:46","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T06:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/a-liquid-laser-that-is-robust-in-air-and-tunable"},"modified":"2023-02-11T00:24:46","modified_gmt":"2023-02-11T06:24:46","slug":"a-liquid-laser-that-is-robust-in-air-and-tunable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/a-liquid-laser-that-is-robust-in-air-and-tunable","title":{"rendered":"A liquid laser that is robust in air and tunable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/a-liquid-laser-that-is-robust-in-air-and-tunable3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists from the Tsukuba Research Center for Energy Materials Science at the University of Tsukuba demonstrated a simple method to produce ionic liquid microdroplets that work as flexible, long-lasting, and pneumatically tunable lasers. Unlike existing \u201cdroplet lasers\u201d that cannot operate under atmosphere, this new development may enable lasers that can be used in everyday settings.<\/p>\n<p>Lotus plants are prized for their beauty, and have a remarkable self-cleaning property. Instead of flattening on the surface of a lotus leaf, <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/water+droplets\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">water droplets<\/a> will form near-perfect spheres and roll off, taking dust with them. This \u201clotus effect\u201d is caused by microscopic bumps in the leaf. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Tsukuba have taken advantage of an artificial lotus effect to create <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/liquid+droplets\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">liquid droplets<\/a> that can act like lasers, while remaining stable for up to a month. Currently available \u201cdroplet lasers\u201d cannot be used under <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/ambient+conditions\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">ambient conditions<\/a>, since they will simply evaporate unless enclosed inside a container.<\/p>\n<p>In this new research, an ionic liquid called 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMIBF<sub>4<\/sub>) was mixed with a dye that allows it to become a laser. This liquid was chosen because it evaporates very slowly and has a relatively large surface tension. Then, a quartz substrate is coated with tiny fluorinated silica nanoparticles to make the surface repel liquids. When the EMIBF<sub>4<\/sub> is deposited on it from a pipette, the tiny droplets remain almost completely spherical. The researchers showed that the droplet could remain stable for 30 days at least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists from the Tsukuba Research Center for Energy Materials Science at the University of Tsukuba demonstrated a simple method to produce ionic liquid microdroplets that work as flexible, long-lasting, and pneumatically tunable lasers. Unlike existing \u201cdroplet lasers\u201d that cannot operate under atmosphere, this new development may enable lasers that can be used in everyday settings. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nanotechnology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}