Dynamic tuning of organic lasers with colloidal crystals

Thin-film organic lasers can be dynamically tuned by the introduction of photonic crystals. A dielectric stack medium is coated with a thin gain layer and then laminated with a photonic bandgap composite film. Applying a stress to the composite film modifies the supported resonator frequencies, and thus the corresponding lasing wavelengths (see Figure). The advantage of this design is its simplicity, which permits the design of the gain medium or the resonator cavity to be considered independently.