Enhanced laser action of Perylene-Red doped polymeric materials

STED nanoscopy - A novel way to image the pore space of geological materials

STED nanoscopy (Stimulated Emission Depletion). which can resolve details far below the diffraction barrier has been applied hitherto preferentially to life sciences. The method is however also ideal for the investigation of geological matrices containing transparent minerals, an application tested here, to our knowledge, for the first time. The measurements on altered granitic rock and sedimentary clay rock, both containing very fine-grained phases, were conducted successfully. The STED fluorophore was dissolved in C-14-labelled methylmethacrylate (C-14-MMA) monomer which was polymerised within the rock matrix, thereby labelling the pore space in the geomaterials. Double labelling provided by the C-14-labelled MMA enables autoradiography and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), providing necessary complementary information for characterisation and quantification of porosity distributions and mineral and structure identification. Promising perspectives for further investigations of geological matrices by using different fluorophores and the optimisation of measuring procedures or even higher resolution are discussed. The combination of these different methods enlarges the observation scale of porosity from nanometre to centimetre scale.

Optical gain characterization of Perylene Red-doped PMMA for different pump configurations

The optical gain is measured in Perylene Red (PR)-doped polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) slabs for copropagating and transverse pumping configurations based on a single-pass pump-probe method where a small signal is used as a probe beam. The gain is characterized in terms of the stimulated gain coefficient (g(S)) for both pump configurations. This material property determines the strength of pump absorption and coupling to the probe signal beam through stimulated emission. For copropagating pumping, g(S) was found to be (3.05±0.17)×10(-3) m/W for ∼0.05  mM PR-doped PMMA using a 633 nm probe laser, pumping with a 532 nm CW laser. For transverse pumping, g(S) was found to be (3.28±0.09)×10(-3)  m/W for a ∼0.15  mM sample. The small difference in the gain coefficient is attributed to the difference in concentration. The stimulated gain coefficient, a material property of the gain medium independent of the pump configuration and experimental setup, offers a useful and convenient way to characterize the optical gain for solid-state lasers or amplifiers.

Anionic polymerization by an electron transfer process from a CdSe quantum dot–perylenediimide (PDI) system

Reversible physical interactions between CdSe quantum dots (QDs) and perylenediimide (PDI) derivatives have been investigated.

Self-curable solid-state elastic dye lasers capable of mechanical stress probing

Herein, a highly sensitive stress probe is reported based on pyrromethene 597 (PM597) doped elastic polydimethylsiloxane films. By sandwiching the dye doped elastic film with two plano dichromatic mirrors, a solid-sate microcavity laser with low laser threshold (~0.2 μJ) is presented as a straightforward probing method for mechanical stress, which is monitored by the laser output spectra, demonstrating a resolution limit higher than 0.01 MPa. The photostability of PM597 doped into the microcavity laser is higher than 7222 GJ/mol, which is among the highest record ever reported to our knowledge and a fast self-recovery on the laser output in less than 1 h, attributed to diffusion of dye molecules is observed, indicating a practical durability for such stress probes.

Large-area organic distributed feedback laser fabricated by nanoreplica molding and horizontal dipping

The fabrication of visible wavelength vertically emitting distributed feedback (DFB) lasers with a subwavelength grating fabricated by a replica molding process and an active polymer layer printed by a horizontal dipping process is reported. The combined techniques enable the organic DFB laser to be uniformly fabricated over large surface areas upon a flexible plastic substrate, with an approach that is compatible with roll-based manufacturing. Using a fixed grating period and depth, DFB laser output wavelength is controlled over a 35 nm range through manipulation of the waveguide layer thickness, which is controlled by the speed of the horizontal dipping process. We also demonstrate that the active area of the structure may be photolithographically patterned to create dense arrays of discrete DFB lasers.