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Solid-state lasers

Lasing from a molecular sieve

Nature volume 397, pages 294–295 (1999)Cite this article

Lasers using organic dyes suspended in solution have been a fixture in optics labs for more than 30 years. They have high output powers and broad tunability over the entire visible spectrum, finding many applications, for instance in molecular spectroscopy. Another type of organic laser is now described by Vietze and co-workers in Physical Review Letters1, one that has a remarkable property — the organic molecule is not suspended in solution, but rather is tucked away in the microscopic pores of a zeolite crystal. This ‘microlaser’ is one of a growing class of optically excited organic lasers that may eventually replace the messy and cumbersome liquid-dye laser, and indeed may find completely novel applications in optical sensing and communications, and in consumer devices such as printers and scanners.

Since the late 1960s, researchers have periodically attempted to make solid-state lasers based on organic dye compounds2,3,4. The reason is that, like solid-state lasers based on such inorganic semiconductors as gallium arsenide, organic diode lasers may give birth to a new generation of devices which have high power and, like their liquid dye cousins, can generate light across the visible spectral region.

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Figure 1: Scanning electron micrograph of a microcrystal laser produced by Vietze et al.1.

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  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Stephen R. Forrest

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  1. Stephen R. Forrest
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Forrest, S. Lasing from a molecular sieve. Nature 397, 294–295 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/16793

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