Organic DFB lasers: holographic patterning

Integrated optical circuits are an important technology for future high tech products. At present there is great interest in producing polymer based optical circuits. These circuits have a number of potential advantages over current silica/semiconductor based systems. These polymer optical circuits have been used to produce waveguide technology. However in general the production of laser systems for these circuits still depends on older semiconductor technologies. Polymer lasers provide a possible candidate for integrated flexible lasers. Many of the systems demonstrated to date use silica/semiconductor substrates to provide sufficient refractive index variation to provide efficient feedback. A novel alternative to this technology is the holographic distributed feedback (DFB) laser geometry. In this system the lasing material is dispersed in a photopolymer holographic recording material. DFB is then provided by a refractive index structure recorded in the material using holographic techniques. In this paper we discuss a range of holographically recorded feedback geometries and examine the possibility of using this technique to produce organic DFB lasers using non contact holographic patterning.