Operating characteristics of a semiconducting polymer laser pumped by a microchip laser

We report the demonstration of a compact, all-solid-state polymer laser system featuring a microchip laser as the pump source. The laser was configured as a surface-emitting, two-dimensional distributed feedback laser, based on the conjugated polymer poly(2-methoxy-5-(2(')-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene). Pulsed, band-edge lasing was observed at 636 nm above a threshold pump energy of 4 nJ. The laser exhibited an energy slope efficiency of 6.8%, with a maximum output energy of 1.12 nJ at a pump energy of 20.4 nJ. The output beam had an azimuthally polarized annular profile with a beam quality factor (M-2) of 2.2, close to the theoretical value of the lowest-order Laguerre-Gaussian and Bessel-Gaussian annular modes. We explain the origin of the azimuthal polarization as due to a coherent combination of the resonant fields supported by the two gratings. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.