Influence of morphology on the lasing behavior of pyrromethene 597 in a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal reflection grating

Rachel Jakubiak; Dean P. Brown; Lalgudi V. Natarajan; Vincent Tondiglia; Pamela Lloyd; Richard L. Sutherland; Timothy J. Bunning; Richard A. Vaia

doi:10.1117/12.682255

30 August 2006 Influence of morphology on the lasing behavior of pyrromethene 597 in a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal reflection grating

Rachel Jakubiak, Dean P. Brown, Lalgudi V. Natarajan, Vincent Tondiglia, Pamela Lloyd, Richard L. Sutherland, Timothy J. Bunning, Richard A. Vaia

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6322, Tuning the Optic Response of Photonic Bandgap Structures III; 63220A (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.682255
Event: SPIE Optics + Photonics, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Interference lithography of polymer dispersed liquid crystals allows rapid, facile fabrication of complex polymeric photonic structures that have an inherent electro-optic component for agile structures. The polymerization mechanism (step-growth or chain growth) strongly influences the morphology of the LC droplet and distribution within the polymer matrix. Using a multi-functional acrylate monomer that undergoes chain growth polymerization leads to asymmetrical LC droplets of random size and distribution, in contrast to the step-growth mechanism of thiol-ene formation where LC droplets form with a nearly uniform size distribution and spherical shape. Thiol-ene holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals (H-PDLCs) diffraction structures have narrower bandwidth and less baseline scatter than the acrylatebased H-PDLCs. Furthermore, distributed feedback lasers constructed from thiolene-based H-PDLC lasers show marked improvement in the optical and electro-optical properties as evinced by the factor of two decrease in switching voltage and the reduction of lasing threshold from 0.17 mJ cm^-2 to 0.07 mJ cm^-2. These differences in optical and electro-optic properties directly correlate with the difference in microscale morphology of the H-PDLCs giving insight to the importance of microscale structure on macroscale phenomenon.

Citation Download Citation

Rachel Jakubiak, Dean P. Brown, Lalgudi V. Natarajan, Vincent Tondiglia, Pamela Lloyd, Richard L. Sutherland, Timothy J. Bunning, and Richard A. Vaia "Influence of morphology on the lasing behavior of pyrromethene 597 in a holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal reflection grating", Proc. SPIE 6322, Tuning the Optic Response of Photonic Bandgap Structures III, 63220A (30 August 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.682255

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available