Transition of lasing modes in polymeric opal photonic crystal resonating cavity

We demonstrate the transition of lasing modes in the resonating cavity constructed by polystyrene opal photonic crystals and 7 wt. % tert-butyl Rhodamine B doped polymer film. Both single mode and multiple mode lasing emission are observed from the resonating cavity. The lasing threshold is determined to be 0.81  μJ/pulse for single mode lasing emission and 2.25  μJ/pulse for multiple mode lasing emission. The single mode lasing emission is attributed to photonic lasing resulting from the photonic bandgap effect of the opal photonic crystals, while the multiple mode lasing emission is assigned to random lasing due to the defects in the photonic crystals. The result would benefit the development of low threshold polymeric solid state photonic crystal lasers.