Low threshold amplified spontaneous emission from near-infrared dye-doped polymeric waveguide

We have investigated near-infrared light amplification in a dye-doped polymeric waveguide structure under optical pumping. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) at similar to 800 nm was observed in poly(vinyl-pyrrolidone) thin film with organic dye LDS798. The ASE threshold energy was as low as similar to 12 mu J/cm(2), which is about one-tenth of previously reported values for infrared-dye-doped polymeric waveguides. This low threshold ASE comes from a large Stokes shift of LDS798, in which the self-absorption of emission is suppressed.