Micro-lasing beads and structures for combinatorial chemistry and other applications, and techniques for fabricating the structures and for detecting information encoded by the structures

A structure, comprising:

• a core;
• a plurality of gain medium layers disposed about said core for providing a plurality of characteristic emission wavelengths, said plurality of gain medium layers being adjacent to isolation layers having a larger index of refraction;
• and
• a functionalized support for attaching to a desired substance.

A method for fabricating a laser bead structure, comprising steps of:

• providing a substrate;
• depositing a plurality of regions of optical gain material on a surface of said substrate, each region being comprised of a plurality of areas each containing optical gain material, each area being capable of emitting a predetermined wavelength that differs from a wavelength emitted by others of said plurality of areas within said region;
• and
• physically dividing the substrate into a plurality of individual laser bead structures individual ones of which comprise at least one of said areas.

A structure, comprising:

• a substrate;
• a plurality of areas on a surface of said substrate, each of said areas comprising an optical gain medium material capable of emitting a predetermined wavelength that differs from a wavelength emitted by others of said plurality of areas;
• and
• a functionalized support for attaching to a desired substance.

A method for identifying a particular bead in a population of beads, comprising steps of:

• providing a population of beads each comprising a functionalized support and means for optically encoding identification information;
• using a sensor that is responsive to a desired bead activity for identifying a location of one or more beads of interest within the population;
• using the identified location to aim an interrogation beam at a particular bead;
• and
• determining an identification of the particular bead from a plurality of wavelengths emitted by the particular bead in response to the interrogation beam.

A method for identifying a bead of a type that comprises a functionalized support, comprising the steps of:

• providing the bead so as to comprise an optical gain medium and a structure for at least one of (a) favoring the creation of at least one mode or (b) supporting amplified spontaneous emission;
• illuminating the bead with light selected for exciting the gain medium;
• detecting an emission of at least one wavelength from the bead in response to the step of illuminating;
• and
• identifying the bead from the detected emission.

A method for processing a population of beads of a type that comprise a functionalized support, comprising the steps of:

• providing at least some beads of the population so as to comprise an optical gain medium and a structure coupled to said gain medium for at least one of (a) favoring the creation of at least one mode or (b) supporting amplified spontaneous emission, said structure encoding information that is made manifest by an optical emission from said bead;
• illuminating at least a portion of the population with light selected for exciting the gain medium;
• detecting an emission of at least one wavelength from at least one bead in response to the step of illuminating;
• and
• decoding the information that was encoded in the at least one bead from the detected emission.

A method for identifying a particular bead in a population of beads in one of a combinatorial chemistry, a screening, or a genomic application, comprising steps of:

• providing a population of beads each comprising a functionalized support and means for optically encoding identification information;
• using a sensor that is responsive to a desired bead activity for identifying a location of one or more beads of interest within the population, said sensor being comprised of at least one of an optical energy detector, an ionizing radiation detector, or a thermal energy detector;
• using the identified location to aim an interrogation laser beam at a particular bead;
• and
• determining an identification of the particular bead from a plurality of wavelengths emitted by the particular bead in response to the interrogation laser beam.

A method for identifying a particular bead in a population of beads used in a Lawn Assay, comprising steps of:

• providing a population of beads each comprising a functionalized support and means for optically encoding identification information;
• using a sensor detects bead assay activity for identifying a location of one or more beads of interest within the population, said sensor being comprised of at least one of an optical energy detector, an ionizing radiation detector, or a thermal energy detector;
• using the identified location to aim an interrogation laser beam at a particular bead;
• and
• determining an identification of the particular bead from a plurality of wavelengths emitted by the particular bead in response to the interrogation laser beam.