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Naturally occurring resonators in random lasing of π-conjugated polymer films

Nature Physics volume 6, pages 303–310 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Random lasing consists of a sequence of narrow, coherent spectral lines formed when stimulated emission in a disordered gain medium is excited above threshold excitation intensity, Ith. We studied the Ith distribution function in π-conjugated polymer films, and its dependence on the excitation area size and polymer mixture with TiO2 nanoparticles; optical pictures of the excited film area support the statistical measurements. At Ith we found that a single dominant random lasing resonator appears in the picture, with good agreement between its diameter and the cavity size extracted from the power Fourier transform analysis of the emission spectrum. This was directly confirmed by a new technique of space/spectrum cross-correlation of the laser emission lines from the excited area with 10×10 μm2 spatial resolution. The statistical results coupled with the imaging data provide strong evidence for the model of random resonators in the gain medium for explaining random lasing in π-conjugated polymer films.

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Figure 1: Properties of random-laser emission spectra.
Figure 2: Random-laser spectra of a DOO-PPV film at various intensities, I, compared with picture images of the excitation area.
Figure 3: Space/spectrum cross-correlation (SSCC) of a lasing random cavity.
Figure 4: Detailed space/spectrum cross-correlation spectroscopy (SSCC) of two competing cavities in the excitation area.
Figure 5: Random-lasing threshold intensity histograms, F(n)(Ith).
Figure 6: Light mean free path and RL in DOO-PPV films mixed with TiO2 nanoparticles.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Raikh and B. Shapiro for many useful discussions. The measurements were made at the John Dixon Laser Institute. This work was supported in part by the DOE grant No DE-FG02-05ER03172 and NSF DMR grant No 08-03325 at the University of Utah. A.T. is grateful for the support of the Institute of Material Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM) at Bilkent University.

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  1. A. Tulek

    Present address: Present address: Aselsan, PO Box 30, Etlik 06011, Turkey,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA

    A. Tulek, R. C. Polson & Z. V. Vardeny

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Contributions

A.T. designed and measured the threshold intensity distribution functions and the SSCC images; R.C.P. designed and measured the detailed SSCC images; Z.V.V. was the research leader, who planned the project and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Z. V. Vardeny.

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Tulek, A., Polson, R. & Vardeny, Z. Naturally occurring resonators in random lasing of π-conjugated polymer films. Nature Phys 6, 303–310 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1509

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