Highly photo-stable dye doped solid-state distributed-feedback (DFB) channeled waveguide lasers by a pen-drawing technique

Pyrromethene dyes doped polymeric channeled waveguide lasers with permanent DFB structures were fabricated via a novel pen-drawing technique with the patterned polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chips fabricated through a casting process as the substrates. With the high resolution dispensers, dye doped high viscosity pre-polymers were written into the PDMS grooves and the cross-section of the channeled waveguides could be controlled by both the polymer composition and the pen-drawing parameters. Highly stable laser output with 4.8 x 10(6) pulses of laser lifetime at 500 Hz of pump repetition rate has been obtained, which is suggested to be among one of the best results of pyrromethene 567 (PM567) up to date. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America