Abstract
The fabrication of visible wavelength vertically emitting distributed feedback (DFB) lasers with a subwavelength grating fabricated by a replica molding process and an active polymer layer printed by a horizontal dipping process is reported. The combined techniques enable the organic DFB laser to be uniformly fabricated over large surface areas upon a flexible plastic substrate, with an approach that is compatible with roll-based manufacturing. Using a fixed grating period and depth, DFB laser output wavelength is controlled over a 35 nm range through manipulation of the waveguide layer thickness, which is controlled by the speed of the horizontal dipping process. We also demonstrate that the active area of the structure may be photolithographically patterned to create dense arrays of discrete DFB lasers.
Highlights
Solid state organic lasers have attracted considerable attention since their first demonstration in 1967 by Soffer .el [1]
We report on the uniform, large-area fabrication of an organic distributed feedback (DFB) laser structure on a flexible plastic substrate, for which the DFB grating is produced by nanoreplica molding and the dye-doped waveguide region is produced by horizontal dipping
Using a detection instrument that enables the spatial mapping of the laser wavelength over a ~10 cm2 surface area, we demonstrate the uniformity of the replica molding/horizontal dipping process
Summary
Solid state organic lasers have attracted considerable attention since their first demonstration in 1967 by Soffer .el [1]. We have demonstrated a room temperature replica molding process for producing submicron grating features used for photonic crystal biosensors [35,36,37] and photonic crystal enhanced-fluorescence substrates for biochemical assays [38,39] The process for these devices involves roll-to-roll manufacturing of the grating structure, as well as roll-toroll deposition of SiO2 and TiO2 sputtered dielectric thin films [33]. We report on the uniform, large-area fabrication of an organic DFB laser structure on a flexible plastic substrate, for which the DFB grating is produced by nanoreplica molding and the dye-doped waveguide region is produced by horizontal dipping. While the application that motivates our research is the development of DFB laser biosensor surfaces for applications in life science research, pharmaceutical discovery, and diagnostic tests, the method presented here may be used to inexpensively fabricate any DFB laser structure for a broad range of applications
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