New perylene-doped polymeric thin films for efficient and long-lasting lasers

Abstract

An efficient strategy was established to optimize the performance of dye-doped host materials consisting of analyzing in a systematic way the dependence of their amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) efficiency and photostability on the composition and structure of the matrixes, selected to specifically avoid the thermal and/or chem. (photooxidation) processes, main mechanisms of dye photodegradation A number of exptl. polyimides were chosen as a host matrix and their behavior was compared with that of PMMA. The optical properties were correlated with the O permeation and thermal properties of the different polymeric hosts doped with perylene dyes to deepen the understanding of the photodegradation mechanism predominant in these dyes and to minimize its influence. High efficiency and photostable ASE from waveguides based on polymeric materials doped with Perylene Orange (PO), Perylene Red (PR), and mixtures of both are demonstrated. This enhancement in the optical properties allows reaching high gain and long-lasting distributed feedback (DFB) laser emission based on PO-doped polymer matrixes, even when operating in an unoptimized resonator.