made by folding the same Lotador In order to achieve lasing with low cost and/or cavity between 128-layer films of alternating continuous wave pump sources, lasing THV/EO (triangles)and PS/PMMA (circles). The thresholds will need to be lowered by nearly an lines in both graphs are the linear fits to the order of magnitude from the earliest experimental data. (Reproduced from [154], coextruded systems. Improved layer uniformity, with permission from The Optical Society of increased refractive index differences, lower America.) parasitic absorptive and scattering losses, better dyes and other emissive species, and use PROSPECTS AND PROMISES of optimized defect structures suggest that performance parity with other DFB lasers is We have demonstrated that co-extruded within reach. multilayer polymers promise to be an easily mass-produced material offering Indeed the use of inexpensive optical pump advantages over corrugated grating-based DFB sources, such as laser diodes, diode-pumped lasers due to their large area available for solid state lasers (DSSLs) or even light emitting lasing, flexibility and ease of manipulation, and diodes may be the method for achieving the wide range of mechanisms available for tuning elusive grail” of electrically pumped “holy the output. Further work will be needed to widely tunable polymer lasers. While, obviously achieve some of the performance a different approach than direct electrical characteristics that have been demonstrated in pumping of organic semiconductor lasers, ,, this long-studied corrugated grating-based DFB could possibly fill a similar niche. lasers such as extended operation, and the use of microchip lasers as pump sources. Further chemical sensors, DNA sequence sensors improvements in tunability and extended operation are possible with improved dyes and/or quantum dot emissive sources., ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Advanced Materials. The authors also thank Dr. Nathan Dawson and Michael Baker for research The authors are grateful to the National Science assistance. Foundation for support from the Science and Technology Center for Layered REFERENCES AND NOTES Polymeric Systems under grant number No. DMR 0423914 and to the State of Ohio, [References currently appear below the author Department of Development, State of Ohio, photos and other ancillaries but will be directly Chancellor of the Board of Regents and Third inserted here instead of using Word’s “Insert Frontier Commission, which provided funding in Endnote” References feature when preparing support of the Research Cluster on Surfaces in the final version for production review. ]
made by folding the same Lotador cavity between 128-layer films of alternating THV/EO (triangles)and PS/PMMA (circles). The lines in both graphs are the linear fits to the experimental data. (Reproduced from [154], with permission from The Optical Society of America.) PROSPECTS AND PROMISES We have demonstrated that co-extruded multilayer polymers promise to be an easily mass-produced material offering advantages over corrugated grating-based DFB lasers due to their large area available for lasing, flexibility and ease of manipulation, and wide range of mechanisms available for tuning the output. Further work will be needed to achieve some of the performance characteristics that have been demonstrated in long-studied corrugated grating-based DFB lasers such as extended operation, and the use of microchip lasers as pump sources. Further improvements in tunability and extended operation are possible with improved dyes and/or quantum dot emissive sources., In order to achieve lasing with low cost and/or continuous wave pump sources, lasing thresholds will need to be lowered by nearly an order of magnitude from the earliest coextruded systems. Improved layer uniformity, increased refractive index differences, lower parasitic absorptive and scattering losses, better dyes and other emissive species, and use of optimized defect structures suggest that performance parity with other DFB lasers is within reach. Indeed the use of inexpensive optical pump sources, such as laser diodes, diode-pumped solid state lasers (DSSLs) or even light emitting diodes may be the method for achieving the elusive “holy grail” of electrically pumped widely tunable polymer lasers. While, obviously a different approach than direct electrical pumping of organic semiconductor lasers, ,, this could possibly fill a similar niche. chemical sensors, DNA sequence sensors ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors are grateful to the National Science Foundation for support from the Science and Technology Center for Layered Polymeric Systems under grant number No. DMR 0423914 and to the State of Ohio, Department of Development, State of Ohio, Chancellor of the Board of Regents and Third Frontier Commission, which provided funding in support of the Research Cluster on Surfaces in Advanced Materials. The authors also thank Dr. Nathan Dawson and Michael Baker for research assistance. REFERENCES AND NOTES [References currently appear below the author photos and other ancillaries but will be directly inserted here instead of using Word’s “Insert Endnote” References feature when preparing the final version for production review. ]
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