Organic Semiconducting Lasers

Project level: PhD, Masters, Honours, Summer

Lasers have many applications in all of the branches of science and technology -- they can weld, cut or drill, transmit phone calls through optical fibres, act as sensors, produce computer printouts and much more. Following the discoveries of luminescence and electroluminescence from organic semiconducting materials, the development of lasers using organic semiconductors became a major research activity around the world.  Furthermore, use of organic semiconductors opens up the prospect of compact, tunable, low-cost, disposable lasers suitable for a wide range of applications.  Almost all organic semiconductor lasers (OSL) reported have needed another laser (mainly bulky and expensive) to optically pump them to reach a threshold. This is a cumbersome and expensive configuration which has limited their usefulness.  An alternative solution is to fabricate an optically pumped OSL that is optically pumped by compact inorganic diode laser.  The main challenge is to reduce optical threshold for lasing. The aim of this project is to minimize the lasing threshold for OSL. In this project we will also exploit the feasibility of electrical pump lasing to potentially create the world’s first organic injection lasing. Image: Design of organic laser with DFB Resonator. Image credit: Dr Ebinazar Namdas (COPE, University of Queensland)