2016): Amplified spontaneous emission in distributed feedback active microcavities fabricated by the sol-gel dip-coating method, Journal of Modern Optics, a institute of laser and optoelectronics, college of precision instrument and optoelectronic engineering, tianjin university, tianjin, p.r. china; bKey laboratory of optoelectronic information science and technology (Ministry of education), tianjin university, tianjin, p.r. china ABSTRACT Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is demonstrated in a distributed feedback (DFB) active microcavity, formed by rhodamine B molecules in a Bragg grating (BG). The BG was fabricated by alternately depositing titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide sol-gel thin films. The reflectance spectrum of BG simulated by the transfer matrix method was consistent with experimental results, demonstrating that the BG had good periodic structures. With rhodamine B molecules embedded, the ASE was observed from the DFB active microcavity in optical pumped conditions. The full-widthhalf-maximum and threshold of ASE were 7.5 nm and 0.2 mJ/pulse. The slope efficiency of 3% was measured. The DFB active microcavity is promising for low-cost ASE.