Time-resolved microscopy with random lasers.

We demonstrate that random lasers provide an outstanding strobe light source for time-resolved microscopy. Utilizing a random laser to illuminate a commercially available microscope enables single exposure, speckle-free time-resolved imaging. Aside from conventional optical transmission microscopy, we also perform time-resolved investigations in phase contrast mode. We apply this method to the monitoring of fs-laser-induced microdot formation in bulk a-SIO(2). Time-resolved investigations show that microdot formation lasts over several microseconds after laser excitation.