Lasing optical cavities based on macroscopic scattering elements.

Two major elements are required in a laser device: light confinement and light amplification. Light confinement is obtained in optical cavities by employing a pair of mirrors or by periodic spatial modulation of the refractive index as in photonic crystals and Bragg gratings. In random lasers, randomly placed nanoparticles embedded in the active material provide distributed optical feedback for lasing action. Recently, we demonstrated a novel architecture in which scattering nanoparticles and active element are spatially separated and random lasing is observed. Here we show that this approach can be extended to scattering media with macroscopic size, namely, a pair of sand grains, which act as feedback elements and output couplers, resulting in lasing emission. We demonstrate that the number of lasing modes depends on the surface roughness of the sand grains in use which affect the coherent feedback and thus the emission spectrum. Our findings offer a new perspective of material science and photonic structures, facilitating a novel and simple approach for the realization of new photonics devices based on natural scattering materials.