Fabrication of a distributed-feedback dye laser with a grating structure in its plastic waveguide

Two approaches of fabricating grating structures for waveguided plastic dye lasers are described and compared for lasing performance. Rhodamine6G–doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) film on a PMMA substrate was used for the waveguide, and a distributed-feedback (DFB) laser operation with a single-propagation mode was demonstrated. The performances of both types of permanent grating structured DFB dye laser were better than those of a DFB dye laser on a plain waveguide with a dynamic grating formed by the interference of two pump beams. Wide tuning range is expected by use of a multistripe DFB laser with different grating pitches.