Grey scale electron-beam lithography in functionalized SU-8 for active optical devices

Abstract

Miniaturized, single mode polymer dye lasers are realized by means of grey scale electron beam lithography (EBL) in functionalized SU-8 2000 resist, doped with Rhodamine 6G laser dye. These devices offer the possibility of easy integration of single mode laser sources in polymer based lab-on-a-chip microsystems. The demonstrated laser device consists of a planar waveguide with a 1st-order distributed feedback grating (DFB) surface corrugation, which forms an optical resonator. When optically pumped at 532 nm, single mode lasing is obtained in the wavelength range 570 nm - 630 nm, determined by the grating period. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating advanced nano-structured active optical components in a rapid prototyping process.