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2026

Spatially Dispersive Laser for Spectral Encoding Imaging

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The teams of Xianyu Ao and Yangjian Cai at Shandong Normal University, together with Jun Guan’s group at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Campus, have leveraged the topological properties of bound states in the continuum (BICs) in a hexagonal photonic lattice to design a split‑BIC cavity. In this cavity, a higher‑order BIC at the Γ point is deliberately split into two BICs located off the Γ point. This design supports continuous high‑quality‑factor (Q) resonances over a broad region of k‑space, yielding an ultra‑compact laser source that inherently combines broadband emission with a monotonic wavelength–angle mapping. The authors experimentally demonstrated this concept by fabricating split‑BIC microcavities in a TiO₂ photonic crystal and integrating them with organic dye molecules as the gain medium. Exploiting this intrinsic spectral–angular correlation, they demonstrated spectrally encoded imaging, in which one spatial dimension of the object is directly mapped onto the optical wavelength axis. Their work paves the way for fully integrated, diffraction‑free laser systems tailored for miniaturized spectroscopic and imaging applications.

The research findings were published on May 20, 2026, in Laser & Photonics Reviews, under the title “Spatially Dispersive Lasing for Spectrally Encoded Imaging.”