Self-Aligned Emission of Distributed Feedback Lasers on Optical Fiber Sidewall

This article assembles a distributed feedback (DFB) cavity on the sidewalls of the optical fiber by using very simple fabrication techniques including two-beam interference lithography and dip-coating. The DFB laser structure comprises graduated gratings on the optical fiber sidewalls which are covered with a layer of colloidal quantum dots. Directional DFB lasing is observed from the fiber facet due to the coupling effect between the grating and the optical fiber. The directional lasing from the optical fiber facet exhibits a small solid divergence angle as compared to the conventional laser. It can be attributed to the two-dimensional light confinement in the fiber waveguide. An analytical approach based on the Bragg condition and the coupled-wave theory was developed to explain the characteristics of the laser device. The intensity of the output coupled laser is tuned by the coupling coefficient, which is determined by the angle between the grating vector and the fiber axis. These results afford opportunities to integrate different DFB lasers on the same optical fiber sidewall, achieving multi-wavelength self-aligned DFB lasers for a directional emission. The proposed technique may provide an alternative to integrating DFB lasers for applications in networking, optical sensing, and power delivery.