Photonic Crystal Template for Organic Solid-state Laser

Shiyoshi Yokoyama, Tatsuo Nakahama, and Shinro Mashiko
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 588-2 Iwaoka, Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-2401, Japan
Masashi Nakao
NTT Photonics Laboratory, 3-1 Morinosato, Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0198,Japan
Motohiro Yamada, Kazuyuki Nishio, and Hideki Masuda
Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minamiosawa, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan
(Received 17 January 2005; accepted 30 August 2005; published online 31 October 2005)

Abstruct

@We report a solid-state laser composed of an Al 2 O 3 photonic crystal and an organic gain medium. The photonic crystal was fabricated through the nanoimprinting technique and an electrochemical process, which enables transfer of a periodic pattern to the photonic crystal and control of its stop band. When the photonic crystal was infiltrated with the polymer medium containing laser dye, we obtained laser emission under optical excitation. The minimum laser threshold was about 2.4 nJ/pulse, where the linewidth of the laser emission was as narrow as 0.09 nm. We explain the laser action based on the band edge effect, while the precise control of the laser mode and oscillation wavelength depends on control of the stop band and small changes in the refractive index of the gain medium.