Highly photostable organic distributed feedback laser emitting at 573 nm

Abstract

An efficient, low-cost, and highly photostable second-order distributed feedback ͑DFB͒ laser, fabricated by thermal nanoimprint lithography and based on a polymer active film containing a perylenediimide derivative, is reported. It shows a photostability half-life of 3.1ϫ 10 5 pump pulses ͑Ͼ8h ͒, when pumped at the same spot of the film. This value is the highest reported to date for organic DFB lasers measured under ambient conditions. The device emits at 573 nm, matching the second low-loss transmission window of poly͑methylmethacrylate͒͑ 460-590 nm͒, thus offering potential for applications in data communications based on polymer optical fibers.

Analytical study of vertical external-cavity surface-emitting organic lasers

“…The higher degradation rate in the case of pumping with 0.5-ns-long pulses might be mainly due to higher absolute pump power which is ~ 20 times higher in this case. The lasing lifetimes are comparable (or even far better, given the high pump fluence used in our case) to values reported in the literature for organic thin film devices [26].…”

Distributed feedback lasers based on perylenediimide dyes for label-free refractive index sensing

“…As previously mentioned, a drawback of using a very thin active film is that the DFB threshold becomes larger and the operational lifetime lower than those achievable with DFBs based on thicker films [28,34]. In order to improve the DFB threshold and operational lifetime, we have prepared devices with thicker active films.…”

“…However, a problem of using a very thin active film in the DFB laser is that its threshold increases due to its lower absorption and therefore emitted light intensity, and also due to a poor confinement of the waveguide mode [34]. Also the operational lifetime would decrease, given that the device needs more pump intensity to operate [28,35]. While strategies towards sensitivity improvement have been previously explored, less attention has been devoted to the effect of these strategies on the device laser threshold and operational lifetime.…”

“…Indeed, the very large ASE photostability half-life value of 2 × 10 5 pump pulses (under excitation two times above the ASE threshold) of the 850 nm-thick film decreases by around one order of magnitude in the thinnest film. But this difference is not a material property dependent on film thickness, but a direct consequence of the higher threshold of the thin film, which requires a higher pumping intensity for operation and this parameter affects critically the photostability performance [28,35].…”

Thermal-nanoimprint lithography for perylenediimide-based distributed feedback laser fabrication

“…In some of them, relief gratings have been prepared over the substrate by holographic lithography [5,6], electron beam lithography (EBL) [7,8], laser interference lithography [8] or nanoimprint lithography (NIL) [9][10][11], and then the active film was deposited on top of them by spincasting [5], spin-coating [6,7,[9][10][11] or horizontal-dipping coating [8]. In other works direct patterning of the DFB structure on the active medium by UV laser interference ablation [12], two photon polymerization [13], or NIL [7,[14][15][16] processes have been performed.…”