Laser emission from leaky waveguides based in dye-doped organic gain media incorporating Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes (POSS) nanoparticles is reported. The samples consist of thin film gain media deposited onto glass substrate defining a planar asymmetric slab waveguide, which does not incorporate any resonant substructure. The presence of POSS results in additional amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectral narrowing, and conditions have been found for which directional multimode laser emission is achieved. The spectral narrowing is ascribed to the photon path enlargement caused by a non-resonant feedback mechanism provided by individual scatterers, which enhances incoherently the magnitude of the amplification process. On the contrary, the appearance of multimode lasing is attributed to coherent random lasing from a many scatterers collective effect.

© 2010 OSA

1. A. Costela, I. García-Moreno, L. Cerdán, V. Martín, O. García, and R. Sastre, “Dye-Doped POSS Solutions: Random Nanomaterials for Laser Emisión,” Adv. Mater. 21(41), 4163–4166 (2009). [CrossRef]
2. M. A. Noginov, Solid-State Random Lasers (Springer, New York, 2005).
3. S. Takeda and M. Obara, “Extremely selective modal oscillation of random lasing induced by strong multiple scattering,” Appl. Phys. B 94(3), 443–450 (2009). [CrossRef]
4. K. P. Kretsch, C. Belton, S. Lipson, W. J. Blau, F. Z. Henari, H. Rost, S. Pfeiffer, A. Teuschel, H. Tillmann, and H.-H. Hörhold, “Amplified spontaneous emission and optical gain spectra from stilbenoid and phenylene derivative model compounds,” J. Appl. Phys. 86(11), 6155–6159 (1999). [CrossRef]
5. P. Yang, G. Wirnsberger, H. C. Huang, S. R. Cordero, M. D. McGehee, B. Scott, T. Deng, G. M. Whitesides, B. F. Chmelka, S. K. Buratto, and G. D. Stucky, “Mirrorless lasing from mesostructured waveguides patterned by soft lithography,” Science 287(5452), 465–467 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
6. S.-S. Yap, W.-O. Siew, T.-Y. Tou, and S.-W. Ng, “Red-green-blue laser emissions from dye-doped poly(vinyl alcohol) films,” Appl. Opt. 41(9), 1725–1728 (2002). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
7. Y. Oki, S. Miyamoto, M. Maeda, and N. J. Vasa, “Multiwavelength distributed-feedback dye laser array and its application to spectroscopy,” Opt. Lett. 27(14), 1220–1222 (2002). [CrossRef]
8. M. A. Reilly, C. Marinelli, C. N. Morgan, R. V. Penty, I. H. White, M. Ramon, M. Ariu, R. Xia, and D. D. C. Bradley, “Rib waveguide dye-doped polymer amplifier with up to26 dB optical gain at 625 nm,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 85(22), 5137–5139 (2004). [CrossRef]
9. W. Lu, B. Zhong, and D. Ma, “Amplified spontaneous emission and gain from optically pumped films of dye-doped polymers,” Appl. Opt. 43(26), 5074–5078 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
10. R. Kumar, A. P. Singh, A. Kapoor, and K. N. Tripathi, “Effect of dye doping in poly(vinyl alcohol) waveguides,” J. Mod. Opt. 52(10), 1471–1483 (2005). [CrossRef]
11. K. Geetha, M. Rajesh, V. P. N. Nampoori, C. P. G. Vallabhan, and P. Radhakrishnan, “Laser emission from transversely pumped dye-doped free-standimg polymer film,” J. Opt. A, Pure Appl. Opt. 8(2), 189–193 (2006). [CrossRef]
12. G. Jordan, M. Flämmich, M. Rüther, T. Kobayashi, W. J. Blau, Y. Suzuki, and T. Kaino, “Light amplification at 501 nm and large nanosecond optical gain in organic dye-doped polymeric waveguides,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 88(16), 161114 (2006). [CrossRef]
13. E. M. Calzado, J. M. Villalvilla, P. G. Boj, J. A. Quintana, R. Gómez, J. L. Segura, and M. A. Díaz García, “Amplified spontaneous emission in polymer films doped with a perylenediimide derivative,” Appl. Opt. 46(18), 3836–3842 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
14. H. Goudket, T. H. Nhung, B. Ea-Kim, G. Roger, and M. Canva, “Importance of dye host on absorption, propagation losses, and amplified spontaneous emission for dye-doped polymer thin films,” Appl. Opt. 45(29), 7736–7741 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
15. M. Djiango, T. Kobayashi, W. J. Blau, B. Cai, K. Komatsu, and T. Kaino, “Near-infrared luminescent polymer waveguide with a 20 dB small-signal gain,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 92(8), 083306 (2008). [CrossRef]
16. S. Yuyama, T. Nakajima, K. Yamashita, and K. Oe, “Solid state organic laser emission at 970 nm from dye-doped fluorinated-polyimide planar waveguides,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93(2), 023306 (2008). [CrossRef]
17. D. Zhang, Z. Chen, and D. Ma, “White light emission on amplified spontaneous emission with dye content controlled polymer system,” J. Appl. Phys. 103(12), 123103 (2008). [CrossRef]
18. L. Cerdán, A. Costela, I. García-Moreno, O. García, and R. Sastre, “Waveguides and quasi-waveguides based on pyrromethene 597-doped poly(methyl methacrylate),” Appl. Phys. B 97(1), 73–83 (2009). [CrossRef]
19. C. Liu, J. Liu, J. Zhang, and K. Dou, “Random lasing with scatterers of diameters 20 nm in an active medium,” Opt. Commun. 244(1-6), 299–303 (2005). [CrossRef]
20. A. Tulek, R. C. Polson, and Z. V. Vardeny, “Naturally occurring resonators in random lasing of π-conjugated polymer films,” Nat. Phys. 6(4), 303–310 (2010), doi:. [CrossRef]
21. G. Kranzelbinder and G. Leising, “Progress in organic solid state lasers,” Rep. Prog. Phys. 63(5), 729–762 (2000). [CrossRef]
22. Y. Oki, S. Miyamoto, M. Maeda, and N. J. Vasa, “Multi-wavelength distributed-feedback dye laser array and its application to spectroscopy,” Opt. Lett. 44, 4965–4971 (2002).
23. X. Zhu and D. Lo, “Sol-gel glass distributed-feedback waveguide laser,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 80(6), 917–920 (2002). [CrossRef]
24. D. Lo, L. Shi, J. Wang, G. X. Zhang, and X. Zhu, “Zirconia and zirconia-organically modified silicate distributed feedback waveguide lasers tunable in the visible,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 81(15), 2707–3181 (2002). [CrossRef]
25. D. Schneider, S. Hartmann, T. Bernsten, T. Dobbertin, D. Heithecker, D. Metzdorf, E. Becker, T. Riedl, H.-H. Johannes, W. Kowalsky, T. Weimann, J. Wang, and P. Hinze, “Wavelength-tunable organic solid-state distributed-feedback laser,” Appl. Phys. B 77(4), 399–402 (2003). [CrossRef]
26. J. Wang, G.-X. Zhang, L. Shi, D. Lo, and X.-L. Zhu, “Tunable multiwavelength distributed-feedback zirconia waveguide lasers,” Opt. Lett. 28(2), 90–92 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
27. F. Chen, J. Wang, C. Ye, W. Ni, J. Chan, Y. Yang, and D. Lo, “Near infrared distributed feedback lasers based on LDS dye-doped zirconia-organically modified silicate channel waveguides,” Opt. Express 13(5), 1643–1650 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
28. H. Sakata and K. Natsume, “Distributed-feedback vertical cavity structures for optically pumped solid-state organic lasers,” Opt. Quantum Electron. 39(7), 577–583 (2007). [CrossRef]
29. M. Lu, B. T. Cunningham, S.-J. Park, and J. G. Eden, “Opt. Commun, “Vertically emitting, dye-doped polymer laser in the green (λ ~ 536 nm) with a second order distributed feedback grating fabricated by replica molding,” Opt. Commun. 281(11), 3159–3162 (2008). [CrossRef]
30. Y. Yang, G. Lin, H. Xu, M. Wang, and G. Qian, “Distributed feedback laser actions in zirconia-ORMOSIL waveguides based on energy transfer between co-doped laser dyes,” Opt. Commun. 281(20), 5218–5221 (2008). [CrossRef]
31. K. Yamashita, M. Arimatsu, N. Takeuchi, M. Takayama, K. Oe, and H. Yanagi, “Multilayerd solid-state organic laser for simultaneous multiwavelength oscillations,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93(23), 233303 (2008). [CrossRef]
32. C. Lowe, Surface Coatings Technology (John Wiley & Sons, London 1997), vol.5, Chap. VI, p.60–62. [PubMed]
33. R. Sastre, V. Martín, L. Garrido, J. L. Chiara, B. Trastoy, O. García, A. Costela, and I. García-Moreno, “Dye-Doped Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS)-Modified Polymeric Matrices for Highly Efficient and Photostable Solid-State Lasers,” Adv. Funct. Mater. 19(20), 3307–3316 (2009). [CrossRef]
34. T.-N. Ding and E. Garmire, “Measuring refractive index and thickness of thin films: a new technique,” Appl. Opt. 22(20), 3177-3181(1983). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
35. D. B. Hall and C. Ye, “Leaky waves in a heteroepitaxial film,” J. Appl. Phys. 44(5), 2271-2274 (1973). [CrossRef]
36. A. Kumar, V. Rastogi, and K. S. Chiang, “Large-core single-mode channel waveguide based on geometrically shaped leaky cladding,” Appl. Phys. B 90(3-4), 507–512 (2008). [CrossRef]
37. F. J. Duarte and R. O. James, “Tunable solid-state lasers incorporating dye-doped, polymer-nanoparticle gain media,” Opt. Lett. 28(21), 2088–2090 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
38. L. Cerdán, A. Costela, I. García-Moreno, O. García, R. Sastre, M. Calle, D. Muñoz, and J. de Abajo, “High-Gain Long-Lived Amplified Spontaneous Emission from Dye-Doped Fluorinated Polyimide Planar Waveguides,” Macromol. Chem. Phys. 210(19), 1624–1631 (2009). [CrossRef]
39. R. C. Polson, G. Levina, and Z. V. Vardeny, “Spectral analysis of polymer microring lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 76(26), 3858–3860 (2000). [CrossRef]

Adv. Funct. Mater.

• R. Sastre, V. Martín, L. Garrido, J. L. Chiara, B. Trastoy, O. García, A. Costela, and I. García-Moreno, “Dye-Doped Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS)-Modified Polymeric Matrices for Highly Efficient and Photostable Solid-State Lasers,” Adv. Funct. Mater. 19(20), 3307–3316 (2009). [CrossRef]

Adv. Mater.

• A. Costela, I. García-Moreno, L. Cerdán, V. Martín, O. García, and R. Sastre, “Dye-Doped POSS Solutions: Random Nanomaterials for Laser Emisión,” Adv. Mater. 21(41), 4163–4166 (2009). [CrossRef]

Appl. Opt.

• S.-S. Yap, W.-O. Siew, T.-Y. Tou, and S.-W. Ng, “Red-green-blue laser emissions from dye-doped poly(vinyl alcohol) films,” Appl. Opt. 41(9), 1725–1728 (2002). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• W. Lu, B. Zhong, and D. Ma, “Amplified spontaneous emission and gain from optically pumped films of dye-doped polymers,” Appl. Opt. 43(26), 5074–5078 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• E. M. Calzado, J. M. Villalvilla, P. G. Boj, J. A. Quintana, R. Gómez, J. L. Segura, and M. A. Díaz García, “Amplified spontaneous emission in polymer films doped with a perylenediimide derivative,” Appl. Opt. 46(18), 3836–3842 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• H. Goudket, T. H. Nhung, B. Ea-Kim, G. Roger, and M. Canva, “Importance of dye host on absorption, propagation losses, and amplified spontaneous emission for dye-doped polymer thin films,” Appl. Opt. 45(29), 7736–7741 (2006). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• T.-N. Ding and E. Garmire, “Measuring refractive index and thickness of thin films: a new technique,” Appl. Opt. 22(20), 3177-3181(1983). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Appl. Phys. B

• A. Kumar, V. Rastogi, and K. S. Chiang, “Large-core single-mode channel waveguide based on geometrically shaped leaky cladding,” Appl. Phys. B 90(3-4), 507–512 (2008). [CrossRef]
• D. Schneider, S. Hartmann, T. Bernsten, T. Dobbertin, D. Heithecker, D. Metzdorf, E. Becker, T. Riedl, H.-H. Johannes, W. Kowalsky, T. Weimann, J. Wang, and P. Hinze, “Wavelength-tunable organic solid-state distributed-feedback laser,” Appl. Phys. B 77(4), 399–402 (2003). [CrossRef]
• L. Cerdán, A. Costela, I. García-Moreno, O. García, and R. Sastre, “Waveguides and quasi-waveguides based on pyrromethene 597-doped poly(methyl methacrylate),” Appl. Phys. B 97(1), 73–83 (2009). [CrossRef]
• S. Takeda and M. Obara, “Extremely selective modal oscillation of random lasing induced by strong multiple scattering,” Appl. Phys. B 94(3), 443–450 (2009). [CrossRef]

Appl. Phys. Lett.

• M. A. Reilly, C. Marinelli, C. N. Morgan, R. V. Penty, I. H. White, M. Ramon, M. Ariu, R. Xia, and D. D. C. Bradley, “Rib waveguide dye-doped polymer amplifier with up to26 dB optical gain at 625 nm,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 85(22), 5137–5139 (2004). [CrossRef]
• G. Jordan, M. Flämmich, M. Rüther, T. Kobayashi, W. J. Blau, Y. Suzuki, and T. Kaino, “Light amplification at 501 nm and large nanosecond optical gain in organic dye-doped polymeric waveguides,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 88(16), 161114 (2006). [CrossRef]
• M. Djiango, T. Kobayashi, W. J. Blau, B. Cai, K. Komatsu, and T. Kaino, “Near-infrared luminescent polymer waveguide with a 20 dB small-signal gain,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 92(8), 083306 (2008). [CrossRef]
• S. Yuyama, T. Nakajima, K. Yamashita, and K. Oe, “Solid state organic laser emission at 970 nm from dye-doped fluorinated-polyimide planar waveguides,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93(2), 023306 (2008). [CrossRef]
• X. Zhu and D. Lo, “Sol-gel glass distributed-feedback waveguide laser,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 80(6), 917–920 (2002). [CrossRef]
• D. Lo, L. Shi, J. Wang, G. X. Zhang, and X. Zhu, “Zirconia and zirconia-organically modified silicate distributed feedback waveguide lasers tunable in the visible,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 81(15), 2707–3181 (2002). [CrossRef]
• K. Yamashita, M. Arimatsu, N. Takeuchi, M. Takayama, K. Oe, and H. Yanagi, “Multilayerd solid-state organic laser for simultaneous multiwavelength oscillations,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93(23), 233303 (2008). [CrossRef]
• R. C. Polson, G. Levina, and Z. V. Vardeny, “Spectral analysis of polymer microring lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 76(26), 3858–3860 (2000). [CrossRef]

J. Appl. Phys.

• D. B. Hall and C. Ye, “Leaky waves in a heteroepitaxial film,” J. Appl. Phys. 44(5), 2271-2274 (1973). [CrossRef]
• D. Zhang, Z. Chen, and D. Ma, “White light emission on amplified spontaneous emission with dye content controlled polymer system,” J. Appl. Phys. 103(12), 123103 (2008). [CrossRef]
• K. P. Kretsch, C. Belton, S. Lipson, W. J. Blau, F. Z. Henari, H. Rost, S. Pfeiffer, A. Teuschel, H. Tillmann, and H.-H. Hörhold, “Amplified spontaneous emission and optical gain spectra from stilbenoid and phenylene derivative model compounds,” J. Appl. Phys. 86(11), 6155–6159 (1999). [CrossRef]

J. Mod. Opt.

• R. Kumar, A. P. Singh, A. Kapoor, and K. N. Tripathi, “Effect of dye doping in poly(vinyl alcohol) waveguides,” J. Mod. Opt. 52(10), 1471–1483 (2005). [CrossRef]

J. Opt. A, Pure Appl. Opt.

• K. Geetha, M. Rajesh, V. P. N. Nampoori, C. P. G. Vallabhan, and P. Radhakrishnan, “Laser emission from transversely pumped dye-doped free-standimg polymer film,” J. Opt. A, Pure Appl. Opt. 8(2), 189–193 (2006). [CrossRef]

Macromol. Chem. Phys.

• L. Cerdán, A. Costela, I. García-Moreno, O. García, R. Sastre, M. Calle, D. Muñoz, and J. de Abajo, “High-Gain Long-Lived Amplified Spontaneous Emission from Dye-Doped Fluorinated Polyimide Planar Waveguides,” Macromol. Chem. Phys. 210(19), 1624–1631 (2009). [CrossRef]

Nat. Phys.

• A. Tulek, R. C. Polson, and Z. V. Vardeny, “Naturally occurring resonators in random lasing of π-conjugated polymer films,” Nat. Phys. 6(4), 303–310 (2010), doi:. [CrossRef]

Opt. Commun.

• M. Lu, B. T. Cunningham, S.-J. Park, and J. G. Eden, “Opt. Commun, “Vertically emitting, dye-doped polymer laser in the green (λ ~ 536 nm) with a second order distributed feedback grating fabricated by replica molding,” Opt. Commun. 281(11), 3159–3162 (2008). [CrossRef]
• Y. Yang, G. Lin, H. Xu, M. Wang, and G. Qian, “Distributed feedback laser actions in zirconia-ORMOSIL waveguides based on energy transfer between co-doped laser dyes,” Opt. Commun. 281(20), 5218–5221 (2008). [CrossRef]
• C. Liu, J. Liu, J. Zhang, and K. Dou, “Random lasing with scatterers of diameters 20 nm in an active medium,” Opt. Commun. 244(1-6), 299–303 (2005). [CrossRef]

Opt. Express

• F. Chen, J. Wang, C. Ye, W. Ni, J. Chan, Y. Yang, and D. Lo, “Near infrared distributed feedback lasers based on LDS dye-doped zirconia-organically modified silicate channel waveguides,” Opt. Express 13(5), 1643–1650 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Opt. Lett.

• J. Wang, G.-X. Zhang, L. Shi, D. Lo, and X.-L. Zhu, “Tunable multiwavelength distributed-feedback zirconia waveguide lasers,” Opt. Lett. 28(2), 90–92 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• F. J. Duarte and R. O. James, “Tunable solid-state lasers incorporating dye-doped, polymer-nanoparticle gain media,” Opt. Lett. 28(21), 2088–2090 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
• Y. Oki, S. Miyamoto, M. Maeda, and N. J. Vasa, “Multiwavelength distributed-feedback dye laser array and its application to spectroscopy,” Opt. Lett. 27(14), 1220–1222 (2002). [CrossRef]
• Y. Oki, S. Miyamoto, M. Maeda, and N. J. Vasa, “Multi-wavelength distributed-feedback dye laser array and its application to spectroscopy,” Opt. Lett. 44, 4965–4971 (2002).

Opt. Quantum Electron.

• H. Sakata and K. Natsume, “Distributed-feedback vertical cavity structures for optically pumped solid-state organic lasers,” Opt. Quantum Electron. 39(7), 577–583 (2007). [CrossRef]

Rep. Prog. Phys.

• G. Kranzelbinder and G. Leising, “Progress in organic solid state lasers,” Rep. Prog. Phys. 63(5), 729–762 (2000). [CrossRef]

Science

• P. Yang, G. Wirnsberger, H. C. Huang, S. R. Cordero, M. D. McGehee, B. Scott, T. Deng, G. M. Whitesides, B. F. Chmelka, S. K. Buratto, and G. D. Stucky, “Mirrorless lasing from mesostructured waveguides patterned by soft lithography,” Science 287(5452), 465–467 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

Other

• M. A. Noginov, Solid-State Random Lasers (Springer, New York, 2005).
• C. Lowe, Surface Coatings Technology (John Wiley & Sons, London 1997), vol.5, Chap. VI, p.60–62. [PubMed]

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