Lasing from dye-doped photonic crystals with graded layers in dichromate gelatin emulsions

Abstract

We report on optically pumped lasing from dye-doped, graded-spacing layer structures of dichromate gelatin emulsions fabricated using two-beam holographic interference. The graded layers exhibited deep and wide photonic band gaps. Multimode lasing with both a low threshold and a high quality factor was observed at the band edge of the photonic band gap. We modeled the emissions from the dye-doped graded layer system using a finite difference time domain technique and achieved good agreement with experimental results. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.2907488͔ Photonic crystals exhibiting band gaps in which electromagnetic wave propagation is not possible have attracted much interest due to the potential that they can manipulate photons in optical microdevices.1 Among the many unique properties of photonic crystals, the control of the photonic density of states has a direct effect on the spontaneous emission of photons, which is an important capability in optoelectronics devices such as lasers, 2 light emitting diodes, 3 microwaveguides, 4 and many other promising photonic devices.5 It has been proposed that the enhancement of the spontaneous emissions in one-dimensional ͑1D͒ photonic crystals doped with gain materials is possible because of the localization at the band gaps and the high density of states at the band edges. 6 The realization of this enhancement was first demonstrated in GaAs light-emitting diodes sandwiched between stacks of 1D Bragg reflectors.7 Since then, lasing from dye-doped polymeric multilayers using distributed feedback and defect modes has been observed. 8,9 Recently, studies on band-edge and defect-mode lasing in dye-doped liquid crystals have attracted interest. 10 In these previous studies, equally spaced layers were employed in the systems. Lasing from 1D layers with gradually changing spacings ͑graded layers͒ is expected to be possible as well.One-dimensional stacks have been fabricated using a time-consuming layer-by-layer spin-coating method.7-9 Holographic lithography that employs the interference of multiple coherent beams is more efficient and has been used to fabricate two-dimensional as well as three-dimensional microstructures in photoresists.11 Furthermore, high-resolution holographic gelatin emulsions can be used to record the interference patterns.12,13 One advantage to using holographic gelatin emulsions is that the structure resulting from the interference is self-supporting inside the gelatin. It was further demonstrated that, with a volume hologram made from dichromate gelatin ͑DCG͒, highly efficient and wide-bandgap 1D layer structures could be achieved.14 The wide-bandgap results from the graded spacing of the 1D layers obtained by the differential swelling of the gelatin during the development process.14 Here, we show that lasing from dyedoped 1D graded layers in DCG holographic emulsions fabricated using two-beam interference is possible. Multimode lasing with both a low threshold and a high quality factor was observed at the band edge of the p...

Broadband plasmonic silver nanoflowers for high-performance random lasing covering visible region

“…Figure 5C demonstrates the linewidth of the random lasing mode at 568.83 nm, which is 0.048 nm as described as full-width at half-maximum (FWHM; Δλ). The corresponding quality factor (defined as λ peak /Δλ) of 11,851 is improved by 1667% (625%) with respect to that of the Ag nanowires [39] (nanoparticles [40])-based random lasers and is comparable to other lasing systems [41,42]. The stability of the random laser is concluded in Figure S6 (Supporting Information) by demonstrating the threshold variations of the 1-year-stored Ag NF-based random lasers at different times, displaying a stable threshold behavior with little fluctuations around 0.24 MW cm −2 , which is the same as that of the random laser shown in Figure 5B.…”

Achieving Wide Band Gaps and a Band Edge Laser Using Face-Centered Cubic Lattice by Holography

“…Holography has shown good potential in fabricating PCs [10,11,13,34,35]. Recent research shows that the 1D PC and quasicrystals PC, with gradual distribution of the refractive index materials made by holography using DCG, can also achieve band edge lasing [36,37]. Using DCG, the present authors fabricated a 3D lattice structure which achieved wide band gaps [38], and sometimes achieved complete band gaps [39,40].…”

“…In our experiments, the measured structure was pumped by a ns pulsed Nd:YAG laser with a pulse duration of 8 ns and a ps pulsed Nd:YAG laser with a pulse duration of 30 ps. The pulse laser with a repetition rate of 10 Hz is the most common commercial equipment in wide use, for example, in the work of [36] and [37]. Therefore, such lasers running at 532 nm and repetition rates of 10 Hz were used.…”

Photonic crystals and microlasers fabricated with low refractive index material

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“…In recent years, there has been a great deal of interests in studying different types of lasers made by the PC [124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134]. One kind of the PC-based lasers can occur without external feedback, which the standing wave solution of the Bloch waves at the band edge can be regarded as the feedback source.…”