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4653420 
Journal Article 
Melt-processed all-polymer distributed Bragg reflector laser 
Singer, KD; Kazmierczak, T; Lott, J; Song, H; Wu, Y; Andrews, J; Baer, E; Hiltner, A; Weder, C 
2008 
1 
Optics Express
ISSN: 1094-4087 
16 
14 
10358-10363 
English 
18607446 
WOS:000257564100039 
We have assembled and studied melt-processed all-polymer lasers comprising distributed Bragg reflectors that were fabricated in large sheets using a co-extrusion process and define the cavities for dye-doped compression-molded polymer gain core sheets. Distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) resonators consisting of 128 alternating poly(styrene) (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) layers were produced by multilayer co-extrusion. Gain media were fabricated by compression-molding thermoplastic host poly notmers doped with organic laser dyes. Both processing methods can be used in high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing. Optically pumped DBR lasers assembled from these components display single and multimode lasing in the reflection band of the resonators, with a slope efficiency of nearly 19% and lasing thresholds as low as 90microJ/cm(2). The lasing wavelength can be controlled via the layer thickness of the DBR resonator films, and variation of the laser dye. Studies of threshold and efficiency are in agreement with models for end-pumped lasers.