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Optical Materials Express

Optical Materials Express

  • Editor: David J. Hagan
  • Vol. 1, Iss. 1 — May. 1, 2011
  • pp: 108–114

Optics InfoBase > Optical Materials Express > Volume 1 > Issue 1 > Page 108

Co-extruded mechanically tunable multilayer elastomer laser

Guilin Mao, James Andrews, Michael Crescimanno, Kenneth D. Singer, Eric Baer, Anne Hiltner, Hyunmin Song, and Bijayandra Shakya  »View Author Affiliations


Optical Materials Express, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 108-114 (2011)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OME.1.000108


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Abstract

We have fabricated and studied mechanically tunable elastomer dye lasers constructed in large area sheets by a single-step layer-multiplying co-extrusion process. The laser films consist of a central dye-doped (Rhodamine-6G) elastomer layer between two 128-layer distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) films comprised of alternating elastomer layers with different refractive indices. The central gain layer is formed by folding the coextruded DBR film to enclose a dye-doped skin layer. By mechanically stretching the elastomer laser film from 0% to 19%, a tunable miniature laser source was obtained with ~50 nm continuous tunability from red to green. Optically pumped by a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser, the elastomer laser showed a lasing threshold of 0.9 mJ/cm2 at 600 nm.

© 2011 OSA

OCIS Codes
(140.2050) Lasers and laser optics : Dye lasers
(140.3600) Lasers and laser optics : Lasers, tunable
(160.5470) Materials : Polymers

ToC Category:
Organics and Polymers

History
Original Manuscript: January 26, 2011
Revised Manuscript: March 23, 2011
Manuscript Accepted: March 31, 2011
Published: April 22, 2011

Citation
Guilin Mao, James Andrews, Michael Crescimanno, Kenneth D. Singer, Eric Baer, Anne Hiltner, Hyunmin Song, and Bijayandra Shakya, "Co-extruded mechanically tunable multilayer elastomer laser," Opt. Mater. Express 1, 108-114 (2011)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ome/abstract.cfm?URI=ome-1-1-108


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