Fluorescence and Lasing in Dye-doped 1D Graded Photonic Crystals: Basics, Concepts and Experimental Methods

Photonic crystals exhibiting bandgaps in which electromagnetic wave propagation is forbidden have attracted much interest due to the potential that they can manipulate photons in optical microdevices. Their control on the photonic density of states has a direct effect on the spontaneous emission of photons, which is an important capability in optical devices such as lasers and light emitting diodes. This book presents the first-time realization of lasing from dye-doped 1D graded photonic crystals in dichromated gelatin fabricated using a two-beam holographic interference. The graded layers, obtained by differential swelling of the gelatin, exhibited deep and wide photonic bandgaps despite the low dielectric contrast of the gelatin. Multimode lasing with both a low threshold and a high quality factor was observed at the band edge of the bandgap. This work leads to further study of light localization and emission from 2D/3D periodic and aperiodic active photonic bandgap structures fabricated by different beam configurations using holographic lithography and opens up new degrees of freedom in the design of laser devices using photonic crystals.