Optical gain at 650 nm from a polymer waveguide with dye-doped cladding

Signal amplification at the polymer optical fiber low-loss window of 650 nm is reported in an SU8 rib waveguide coated with Rhodamine-640 doped poly(methyl methacrylate). A signal beam is end-fired into the facet of a 7x100 mu m waveguide and amplified by top pumping of the 2-mu m-thick cladding region with a pulsed pump source focused into a 9-mm-long stripe. A gain of 14dB and a minimum signal-to-noise ratio of around 2 dB are achieved in a 15-mm-long device with a low threshold pump intensity of 0.25 mu J/mm(2), which is an order of magnitude lower than previously reported. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.