Markedly Improved Performance of Optically Pumped Organic Lasers with Two-Dimensional Distributed-Feedback Gratings

Continuous-wave (CW) lasing is still difficult to realize in organic laser dyes, one reason being the thermal degradation caused by intense photoexcitation. A decrease in laser threshold suppresses the thermal degradation and, therefore, leads to long-lasting lasing from organic laser dyes. Here, we show that it is possible to decrease the laser thresholds by combining the organic laser dye 4,4-bis[(N-carbazole)styryl]biphenyl, which has a small spectral overlap between the laser emission and the excited-state triplet absorption, with two-dimensional (2D) distributed-feedback (DFB) gratings. We used second-order 2D cross double and square lattice DFB gratings, which offer light feedback in two orthogonal directions, and second-order and mixed-order circular DFB gratings, which offer light feedback in radial directions. Among these grating structures, the mixed-order circular DFB grating structure led to the lowest lasing threshold of ∼0.015 μJ cm–2 under short-pulse photoexcitation because of the excellent optical feedback. Moreover, a low average-power threshold of 10 W cm–2 (a peak-power threshold of 1 kW cm–2) was obtained when laser devices with this grating structure were operated under 1 s of long-pulse photoexcitation with a repetition rate of 0.01 Hz. Additionally, using the mixed-order circular DFB grating structure improved the laser stability under CW photoexcitation since shorter exciton lifetimes in the optical resonator suppress the chemical decomposition. These results demonstrate the importance of choosing an optical resonator structure for improving organic laser performance.