Polymer microcavity dye laser based on a single mode SU-8 planar waveguide

摘要

We present a microcavity solid polymer dye laser based on a single mode planar waveguide. The all-polymerrndevice is self contained in the photo definable polymer SU-8 and may therefore easily be placed on any substrate,rnand integrated with polymer-based optical or microfluidic systems. As the active medium for the laser we usernthe commercially available laser dye Rhodamine 6G which is incorporated into the SU-8 polymer matrix. Thernsingle mode slab waveguide is formed by a 3-step spin coating deposition: a buffer layer of un-doped SU-8, a corernlayer of SU-8 doped with Rhodamine, and a cladding layer of un-doped SU-8. The refractive index increases withrnRhodamine concentration, and the difference between the un-doped buffer and cladding layers and the dopedrncore layer is fine tuned to 0.001, allowing a large gain volume.