Polymer Distributed Feedback Lasers Research Articles

Electrically driven organic laser using integrated OLED pumping

Organic semiconductors are carbon-based materials that combine optoelectronic properties with simple fabrication and the scope for tuning by changing their chemical structure1–3. They have been successfully used to make organic light-emitting diodes2,4,5 (OLEDs, now widely found in mobile phone displays and televisions), solar cells1, transistors6 and sensors7. However, making electrically driven organic semiconductor lasers is very challenging8,9. It is difficult because organic semiconductors typically support only low current densities, suffer substantial absorption from injected charges and triplets, and have additional losses due to contacts10,11. In short, injecting charges into the gain medium leads to intolerable losses. Here we take an alternative approach in which charge injection and lasing are spatially separated, thereby greatly reducing losses. We achieve this by developing an integrated device structure that efficiently couples an OLED, with exceptionally high internal-light generation, with a polymer distributed feedback laser. Under the electrical driving of the integrated structure, we observe a threshold in light output versus drive current, with a narrow emission spectrum and the formation of a beam above the threshold. These observations confirm lasing. Our results provide an organic electronic device that has not been previously demonstrated, and show that indirect electrical pumping by an OLED is a very effective way of realizing an electrically driven organic semiconductor laser. This provides an approach to visible lasers that could see applications in spectroscopy, metrology and sensing.

Plasmonic distributed feedback lasing in an anodic aluminum oxide/silver/polymer hybrid membrane.

A hybrid membrane is employed as a high-order plasmonic distributed feedback (DFB) cavity to reduce the lasing threshold of polymer lasers. The hybrid membrane consists of an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane, a 25 nm thick silver layer and a free-standing polymer membrane. The AAO membrane is fabricated by a low-cost, single chemical etching method. Then, a layer of silver with a thickness of 25 nm is sputtered on the surface of the AAO. Subsequently, a polymer membrane is directly attached to the silver-plated AAO membrane, forming an AAO/silver/polymer hybrid membrane. Under optical pumping conditions, low-threshold, three-order DFB lasing is observed. The proposed laser device exhibited a dual-threshold characteristic because of the evolution from amplified spontaneous emission to DFB lasing. And a significant shift from omnidirectional emission to directional emission lasing can be observed while the pump energy density is beyond the second threshold. Furthermore, the plasmonic enhancement sourced from silver corrugation reveals important improvement effects to the DFB lasing of AAO/silver/polymer hybrid membrane for decreasing threshold, narrowing full width at half maximum (FWHM), and an increasing Q factor. This work may promote the design and production of low-cost and large-area high-order plasmonic DFB polymer lasers.

Single-Mode Lasing in Polymer Circular Gratings.

In recent years, conjugated polymers have become the materials of choice to fabricate optoelectronic devices, owing to their properties of high absorbance, high quantum efficiency, and wide luminescence tuning ranges. The efficient feedback mechanism in the concentric ring resonator and its circularly symmetric periodic geometry combined with the broadband photoluminescence spectrum of the conjugated polymer can generate a highly coherent output beam. Here, the detailed design of the ultralow-threshold single-mode circular distributed feedback polymer laser is presented with combined fabrication processes such as electron beam lithography and the spin-coating technique. We observe from the extinction spectra of the circular gratings that the transverse electric mode shows no change with the increase of incident beam angle. The strong enhancement of the conjugated polymer photoluminescence spectra with the circular periodic resonator can reduce the lasing threshold about 19 µJ/cm2. A very thin polymer film of about 110 nm is achieved with the spin-coating technique. The thickness of the gain medium can support only the zero-order transverse electric lasing mode. We expect that such a low threshold lasing device can find application in optoelectronic devices.

Pump Polarization and Size Effects on the Performance of Polymer Lasers.

The parameters of a pump have a marked influence on the performance of distributed feedback polymer lasers. Our polymer laser consisted of a grating and a polymer film. We fabricated the grating using interference lithography. The polymer film was spin coated on the grating. A half-wave plate was used to change the pump polarization, and an x-y slit was used to change the pump size. The direction of grating lines were parallel to the x axis of the slit. The laser performance was modified by changing the polarizations and sizes of the pump beam. The lasing threshold increased more rapidly with decreasing pump size in the y direction than in the x direction. The influence of the pump polarization on the lasing threshold for decreasing pump size in the x direction was greater than that for decreasing pump size in the y direction. These results may be useful for the miniaturization of distributed feedback polymer lasers.

Controlling the Performance of Polymer Lasers via the Cavity Coupling.

The polarization and threshold of distributed feedback (DFB) polymer lasers were controlled by adjusting the cavity coupling. The cavity of DFB polymer lasers consisted of two gratings, which was fabricated by a two-beam multi-exposure holographic technique. The coupling strength of the cavity modes was tuned by changing the angle between the two gratings. The threshold of the polymer lasers decreased with reducing the coupling strength of the cavity modes. A minimum threshold was observed at the lowest coupling strength. Moreover, the azimuthally polarized output of the polymer lasers was modified by changing the cavity coupling. These results may provide additional perspectives to improve the performance of DFB polymer lasers.

Operating Characteristics of High-Order Distributed Feedback Polymer Lasers.

In this study, high-order distributed-feedback (DFB) polymer lasers were comparatively investigated. Their performance relies on multiple lasing directions and their advantages include their high manufacturing tolerances due to the large grating periods. Nine laser cavities were fabricated by spin-coating the gain polymer films onto a grating structure, which was manufactured via interference lithography that operated at the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th DFB orders. Low threshold lasing and high slope efficiency were achieved in high-order DFB polymer lasers due to the large grating groove depth and the large gain layer thickness. A high-order DFB configuration shows possible advantages, including the ability to control the lasing direction and to achieve multiple-wavelength lasers. Furthermore, our investigation demonstrates that the increase in threshold and decrease in slope efficiency with an increase in the feedback order can be limited by controlling the structural parameters.

Continuously tunable distributed feedback polymer laser.

A fanshaped structure is proposed to achieve a continuously tunable polymer laser. The structure with gradual periods is fabricated by electron beam lithography, which acts as a distributed feedback cavity for the polymer laser. A light-emitting polymer is spin-coated on the cavity to form an active layer. The pump beam is focused by a cylindrical lens to a narrow stripe on the sample surface. When the position of the pump stripe on the fanshaped cavity is changed from long period (370 nm) to short period (340 nm) and vice versa, the output wavelength of the laser is continuously tuned from 584 nm to 552 nm. Tuning behavior can be interpreted by the Bragg condition. These results can be used to explore compact laser sources.

Distributed feedback lasing in a metallic cavity

Distributed feedback (DFB) lasing is observed in a metallic cavity, which consists of a gold grating and a polymer membrane. The gold grating is prepared by evaporating a 25 nm thin film of gold on the photoresist grating fabricated by interference lithography. A 150 nm thick polymer membrane is directly attached on the gold grating, forming a suspended membrane supported by the grating ridge. The assembly method decreases the metallic contact area, which makes the mode more photonic and thereby reduces the ohmic loss of the metal. Low threshold DFB lasing can be achieved when the sample is optically pumped. The fabrication technique provides a facile way to realize plasmonic DFB polymer lasers.

Thermal annealing effect on organic semiconducting polymer laser with an external holographic grating feedback layer

Thermal annealing effect on an organic distributed feedback (DFB) laser excited from a semiconducting polymer gain layer, poly(2-methoxy-5-(2’-ethyl-hexyloxy)-p-phenyl-envinylene) (MEH-PPV), is reported. The morphology, absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectral characteristics of the MEH-PPV film annealed at different temperatures were analyzed. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE), the optical gain and loss coefficients were also investigated. The organic lasing behaviors including threshold, energy conversion efficiency and polarization state in a DFB laser device were studied. The results show that the optical properties of the organic semiconducting laser can be enhanced by thermal annealing effect. The single mode laser emission at 622.4 nm with lower lasing threshold 0.2 μJ/pulse and higher energy conversion efficiency 6.71% was achieved with thermal annealing at 120 °C. The thermal annealing treatment decreases laser threshold and increases laser energy conversion efficiency dramatically, which shows the potential in ultra-low cost organic semiconducting polymer DFB lasers.

A high-order external distributed feedback polymer laser with low working threshold

In this paper, we report a high-order distributed feedback (DFB) polymer laser with low working threshold. Using the high-order grating increases the lithographic tolerances, providing coherent light sources that are more amenable to mass-manufacturing techniques, such as laser direct writing lithography and roll-to-roll processing. To enable high-order DFB lasing, an unconventional working configuration is designed in which the grating is situated on top of the uniform conjugated polymer film. In addition, a novel Forster energy transfer blend of two conjugated polymers is used as the gain medium. Upon pumping, the device emits lasing around 603.6 nm with a bandwidth of 0.5 nm. The threshold is around 20.5 μJ cm−2 (~2.56 kW cm−2), about to enter the regime of inexpensive LED pumping. A further increase in pump energy results in simultaneous oscillations at the 29th and 30th Bragg orders. Operating principles of the high-order DFB polymer laser, including spectral performance and threshold dependence on pump length, are investigated. This approach represents a step towards low-cost, even ‘disposable’ polymer lasers.

Working characteristics of external distributed feedback polymer lasers with varying waveguiding structures

We report the fabrication and characterization of second-order external distributed feedback (DFB) lasers based on blue-emitting polymer poly (9, 9-dioctyl-fluorene) (PFO). The relief grating prepared in the photo-resist layer on top of the gain medium was directly employed as the resonator. The effect of various structural parameters including the thickness of the active film, the thickness of the residue layer, and the depth of the relief grating on performance of these polymer lasers was investigated. An analytical approach based on the slab waveguiding theory and the Bragg condition was developed to accurately determine the lasing wavelength. We found that laser threshold increases monotonously as the thickness of the residue layer increases. The presence of the residue layer between the relief grating and the organic semiconductor layer weakens the strength of light coupling between the two layers, leading to a decreased gain for the specific lasing mode. The lowest laser threshold level of 80 μJ cm−2 was obtained when the thickness of the gain medium was around 250 nm, indicating an optimum balance between light feedback provided by the grating and optical amplification in the organic semiconductor. Our results not only provide insights into working mechanisms of external DFB polymer lasers, but also design rules for fabricating them.

Surface-plasmon-enhanced lasing emission based on polymer distributed feedback laser

Optical losses associated with the metallic contacts necessary for charge injection are an obstacle to the development of electrically pumped organic lasers. In this work, we show that it is possible to overcome these losses by introducing surface plasmons (SPs) in a distributed feedback laser to enhance the lasing emission. We perform a detailed study of the SPs influence on the lasing emission. We experimentally show that enhanced lasing emission has been successfully achieved in the presence of a metal electrode. The laser emission is strongly dependent on the thickness of Ag layer. By optimizing the thickness of Ag layer, surface-plasmon-enhanced lasing emission has been achieved with much reduced thresholds and higher intensity. When the thickness of the Ag layer increases to 50 nm, the device exhibits ten-fold emission intensity and a fifth of excitation threshold comparing with Ag-free one. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) results show that large field intensity is built at the 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-i-propyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran:/poly(9-vinylcarbazole)Ag interface, which could lead to a strong coupling between lasing and SPs, and consequently a much enhanced laser emission at the photon energy of around 2.02 eV (615 nm). Our FDTD simulations gave an explanation of the effects of the SPs on lasing operation in the periodic structures. The use of SPs would lead to a new class of highly efficient solid-state laser sources and provide a new path to achieve electrically pumped organic lasers.

LED pumped polymer laser sensor for explosives.

A very compact explosive vapor sensor is demonstrated based on a distributed feedback polymer laser pumped by a commercial InGaN light-emitting diode. The laser shows a two-stage turn on of the laser emission, for pulsed drive currents above 15.7 A. The ‘double-threshold’ phenomenon is attributed to the slow rise of the ∼30 ns duration LED pump pulses. The laser emits a 533 nm pulsed output beam of ∼10 ns duration perpendicular to the polymer film. When exposed to nitroaromatic model explosive vapors at ∼8 ppb concentration, the laser shows a 46% change in the surface-emitted output under optimized LED excitation.

Second-order distributed feedback polymer laser based on holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal grating

We report on the fabrication and characterization of a second-order distributed feedback (DFB) polymer laser based on a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) transmission grating. The fine organic grating is fabricated on top of the homogeneous conjugated polymer layer in a one-step process. The device shows surface-emitting, single mode laser emission with a threshold of 13.3μJ/cm2, and the working characteristics merely degrade after 10months of storage in ambient atmosphere. We further explain the dependence of threshold on pumping length, and demonstrate the small refractive index modulation of this all-organic grating is sufficient to maintain efficient DFB laser action. This simple working structure, combined with large processing area provided by the holographic polymerization technique, is extremely promising in realizing ultra-low cost plastic lasers.

Distributed feedback polymer laser with an external feedback structure fabricated by holographic polymerization technique

Distributed feedback polymer laser with a grating in the waveguide cladding layer was prepared by holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals (HPDLCs). The holographic polymerization technique enables one-step formation of an organic grating on top of a homogenous semiconducting polymer poly(2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-p-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) layer. Under optical pumping, a lasing threshold of 21μJ/cm2 and a bandwidth of 0.7nm were obtained in a single longitudinal mode operation. Further studies on the effect of the semiconducting polymer thickness show the amount of evanescent wave spread into the grating layer determines the laser performance of the proposed device.

Lowered threshold of polymer distributed feedback laser by hybridizing waveguide and surface-plasmon polariton modes

We report on lowering threshold of polymer distributed feedback (DFB) laser with metallic contact by hybridizing the waveguide (WG) and surface-plasmon polariton (SPP) modes. Compared with conventional DFB laser, the lasing threshold is dramatically lowered by more than 80% by the introduction of a silver film into the DFB structure. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the lowered lasing threshold is a result of hybrid mode induced DFB enhancement, of which the field is formed by the mutual coupling between WG and SPP modes.

Electrically Tunable Organic Distributed Feedback Lasers Embedding Nonlinear Optical Molecules

The emission of polymer distributed feedback lasers is tuned by integrating nonlinear optical organics. The nonlinearity allows reversible tuning of the amplified spontaneous emission of a conjugated polymer by 30 nm, and the lasing wavelength by 17 nm, with a lasing tunability coefficient of 0.17 nm/V.

Design of distributed feedback cavity with controllable angular emission

The angular emission spectra of the distributed feedback (DFB) cavity are investigated theoretically and experimentally. An angular emission model of the relationship between the DFB cavity and its angular emission spectra is proposed. In the model, the DFB cavity can be decomposed into two parts: a grating and an active waveguide layer. So, the angular emission spectra of the DFB cavity are mainly determined by the period of the grating, the thickness of the waveguide and the material absorption during the feedback process. The theoretical model agrees well with the experimental results. It provides a convenient estimate for designing more efficient DFB polymer lasers and highly directional emission devices.

Electrically Tunable Polymer DFB Laser

Soft optical components based on flexible polymers or fluids can be coupled to electroactive polymer artificial muscles for monolithically integrated optical elements with voltage controlled properties. A flexible polymer distributed feedback (DFB) dye laser is combined with an electroactive dielectric elastomer actuator to afford continuous voltage-controlled wavelength shift.

Mechanically tunable conjugated polymer distributed feedback lasers

Herein we report a low-threshold organic laser device based on semiconducting poly(9,9′-dioctylfluoren-2,7-diyl-alt-benzothiadiazole) (F8BT) encapsulated in a mechanically stretchable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. We take advantage of the natural flexibility of PDMS to alter the periodicity of the distributed feedback grating which in turn tunes the gain wavelength at which the resonant feedback is obtained. This way, we demonstrate that low-threshold lasing [6.1 μJ cm−2 (5.3 nJ)] is maintained over a large stretching range of 0%–7% which translates into a tuning range of about 20 nm.