Laser Emission from Electrospun Polymer Nanofibers

Abstract

Fully organic nanofiber lasers, made by a polymer matrix doped with gain molecules, are demonstrated. They exhibit emission in the visible and near infrared range (see image), supporting efficient waveguiding of the self‐emitted light. Individual fibers can operate as optical cavities, emitting single‐mode laser light at visible wavelengths with a threshold of tens of µJ cm−2.

Organic solid‐state integrated amplifiers and lasers

“…They are also very useful in integrated circuits as they can provide nano-macro interface thanks to their capability of connecting macroscale and nanoscale photonic and electronic components, respec-REVIEW ARTICLE 449 tively. The fabrication technology of these structures is quite mature and there is a wealth of methods that have been reported to produce high-quality nanofibers, including melt assisted template wetting [303], electrospinning [304,305], soft lithography [306], dip-pen lithography [307], absorbentassisted plasma vapour deposition [308], vapour deposition polymerization (VDP) followed by dipping in organic dye solutions [309], self-assembly and solution chemistry using suitable templates [310], vacuum sublimation [311] and drawing directy from polymer solution individually or in parallel using one or a larger number of AFM tips respectively [312]. Figure 40 shows a SEM image of PFO nanofibers as produced by the melt-assisted template wetting method [313].…”

“…Such structures can generate laser emission within a scale comparable to the compactness of a nanophotonic integrated system. Lasing by optical pumping has been demonstrated in nanofibers based on conjugated polymers [313] and oligomers [309], dye-doped polymers [304], and small semiconducting molecules doped with dyes [308], exhibiting performance metrics such as laser linewidths and thresholds that are comparable with those of their macroscopic counterparts. There are also reports on coherent random lasing in nanofibers of organic crystalline conjugated oligomers, in particular para-sexiphenyl (p-6P) [314][315][316][317] for high sensitivity nonlinear optical nanosensors.…”

Origin of high propagation loss in electrospun polymer nanofibers

“…9,10 These properties make them promising candidates for applications in small optical devices such as waveguides, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] light sources, 11,12 sensors, 13 resonators, 14 gratings, 15 and switches, 16 and the fibers are also applicable to the field of plasmonics 17 and optomechanics. 18,19 Electrospun polymer fibers have nanometer diameters and high aspect ratios, making them well-suited for use in such optical devices.…”

Conjugated Polymer and Hybrid Polymer-Metal Single Nanowires: Correlated Characterization and Device Integration

“…Hybrid metal-CP NWs are attractive candidates for nanodiodes and transistors [Pinto (2003); Park (2004); Merlo & Frisbie (2004); Pinto (2009)] as well as photonic [Guo (2008);Camposeo (2009)] and electrochromic devices [Cho & Lee (2008)]. This high applicative potential comes from the fact that they make profit from intrinsic properties of CPs (lowcost, flexibility, environmental stability, high biocompatibility) concomitantly with other properties stemming from their low-dimensionality (large surface-to-volume ratio and enhanced properties compared to bulk materials).…”