Mirrorless lasing from mesostructured waveguides patterned by soft lithography

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Photonics

Background:

• Mesoporous silica offers unique optical properties.
• Block copolymer templating enables controlled nanostructure fabrication.
• Soft lithography provides a scalable patterning method.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fabricate mesostructured silica waveguide arrays.
• To investigate waveguiding properties using a low-refractive index support.
• To explore the potential for integrated optical circuits.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication using acidic sol-gel block copolymer templating chemistry.
• Utilizing soft lithography for patterning.
• Doping mesostructure with rhodamine 6G laser dye.

Main Results:

• Successful fabrication of mesostructured silica waveguide arrays.
• Waveguiding achieved with a low-refractive index (1.15) mesoporous silica thin film support.
• Observed amplified spontaneous emission with a low pumping threshold (10 kW/cm²) in rhodamine 6G doped waveguides.

Conclusions:

• The mesostructure prevents dye aggregation, enabling high dye loading.
• Mesostructured silica waveguides show potential for integrated optical circuits.
• The process is highly processible and self-assembling.