Large-area organic distributed feedback laser fabricated by nanoreplica molding and horizontal dipping

The fabrication of visible wavelength vertically emitting distributed feedback (DFB) lasers with a subwavelength grating fabricated by a replica molding process and an active polymer layer printed by a horizontal dipping process is reported. The combined techniques enable the organic DFB laser to be uniformly fabricated over large surface areas upon a flexible plastic substrate, with an approach that is compatible with roll-based manufacturing. Using a fixed grating period and depth, DFB laser output wavelength is controlled over a 35 nm range through manipulation of the waveguide layer thickness, which is controlled by the speed of the horizontal dipping process. We also demonstrate that the active area of the structure may be photolithographically patterned to create dense arrays of discrete DFB lasers. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America