Thermal effects in thin-film organic solid-state lasers

Abstract

Abstract:With the recent development of organic solid-state lasers (OSSLs) architectures enabling power scaling and progresses towards continuous-wave operation, the question of thermal effects now arises in OSSLs. In this paper, a Rhodamine 640-PMMA based vertical external cavity surface emitting organic laser is investigated. A thermal microscope is used to record temperature maps at the organic thin film surface during laser action; those maps are compared with time-resolved finite element thermal simulations. The measured and simulated peak temperature rises are in good accordance and are shown to remain below 10 K in standard operating conditions, showing a negligible impact on performance. The validated model is used to investigate typical OSSL structures from the literature, in a virtual high average power regime, and up to the CW regime. It is shown that whenever true CW organic lasing will be realized, significant thermal effects will have to be considered and properly managed. Rev. B 56(8), R4363-R4366 (1997). 12. H. Sakata, K. Yamashita, H. Takeuchi, and M. Tomiki, "Diode-pumped distributed-feedback dye laser with an organic-inorganic microcavity," Appl. Phys. B 92(2), 243-246 (2008). 13. H. Rabbani-Haghighi, S. Forget, S. Chénais, and A. Siove, "Highly efficient, diffraction-limited laser emission from a Vertical External-Cavity Surface-emitting Organic Laser," Opt. Lett. 35(12), 1968-1970 (2010

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