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Laser action in organic semiconductor waveguide and double-heterostructure devices

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Abstract

Stimulated emission by optical pumping of solid-state organic materials has been well known since the late 1960s following thefirst demonstrations of laser action in dye-doped gels and molecular crystals1,2,3,4. Interest in this field has been revived by the demonstration of efficient, long-lived and intense electroluminescence in both polymeric5 and small-molecular-weight6 organic thin films, which indicates the possibility of laser action in these materials. Several recent studies of optically pumped polymers have reported emission phenomena suggestive of laser action7,8,9. Here we present clear evidence for laser action from optically pumped, vacuum-deposited thin films of organic molecules, in both slab-waveguide and double-heterostructure configurations. This realization of laser action in conducting organic thin films should open the way to the development of a new class of electrically pumped laser diodes.

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Figure 1: Details of the lasers used in this work.
Figure 2: Spectra of the edge emission from an Alq3/DCM slab laser at increasing excitation levels near threshold.
Figure 3: High-resolution edge emission spectrum of a 500-µm-long slab laser at a pump energy density of 1.7 μJ cm−2.
Figure 4: Dependence of output energy on the input pump energy near threshold for 1-mm-long slab-waveguide (right inset) and double-heterostructure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation and Universal Display Corporation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and the Princeton Material Institute, Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    V. G. Kozlov, V. Bulović, P. E. Burrows & S. R. Forrest

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  1. V. G. Kozlov
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  2. V. Bulović
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  3. P. E. Burrows
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  4. S. R. Forrest
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Correspondence to V. G. Kozlov.

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Kozlov, V., Bulović, V., Burrows, P. et al. Laser action in organic semiconductor waveguide and double-heterostructure devices. Nature 389, 362–364 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38693

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