Single-Mode Polymer Ridge Waveguide Integration of Organic Thin-Film Laser
Single-Mode Polymer Ridge Waveguide Integration of Organic Thin-Film Laser
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DOI：
10.3390/app10082805
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发表时间：
2020-02-01
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Kowalsky, Wolfgang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cehovski, Marko;Becker, Jing;Kowalsky, Wolfgang
有机薄膜激光器（OLAS）在灵活性和小规模制造方面是有前途的光源。这些特性对于将有机薄膜激光器集成到单模波导中尤其需要。基于单模脊波导系统的光学传感器，尤其是用于芯片实验室（LoC）应用的光学传感器，通常需要外部激光源、自由空间光学器件和耦合结构，这遭受耦合损耗和机械稳定性问题。在本文中，我们报告的第一个成功的有机薄膜激光器直接集成到聚合物单模脊波导形成单片激光器器件的LoC应用。集成波导激光器通过三个生产步骤实现：将布拉格光栅纳米压印到波导包层材料EpoClad上，波导芯材料EpoCore的UV光刻，以及在单模波导和布拉格光栅区域顶部热蒸发OLAS材料Alq（3）：DCM 2。在这里，激光被分析出波导面，即使在高泵浦能量密度下，光学光谱也呈现单模特性。这种集成波导激光器非常适合于基于强度和干涉传感器的光子LoC应用，其中需要单模操作。
Organic thin-film lasers (OLAS) are promising optical sources when it comes to flexibility and small-scale manufacturing. These properties are required especially for integrating organic thin-film lasers into single-mode waveguides. Optical sensors based on single-mode ridge waveguide systems, especially for Lab-on-a-chip (LoC) applications, usually need external laser sources, free-space optics, and coupling structures, which suffer from coupling losses and mechanical stabilization problems. In this paper, we report on the first successful integration of organic thin-film lasers directly into polymeric single-mode ridge waveguides forming a monolithic laser device for LoC applications. The integrated waveguide laser is achieved by three production steps: nanoimprint of Bragg gratings onto the waveguide cladding material EpoClad, UV-Lithography of the waveguide core material EpoCore, and thermal evaporation of the OLAS material Alq(3):DCM2 on top of the single-mode waveguides and the Bragg grating area. Here, the laser light is analyzed out of the waveguide facet with optical spectroscopy presenting single-mode characteristics even with high pump energy densities. This kind of integrated waveguide laser is very suitable for photonic LoC applications based on intensity and interferometric sensors where single-mode operation is required.