Distributed feedback laser operation of dye doped plastic waveguide

Presently, via the solid-state stage, the evolution of the laser source is in the stage of integrated laser which is represented by laser diode. Since the integrated laser has advantages of stability, low power requirements and ease of handling, many new type of applications have been found by using such a laser source. Also in spectroscopy applications, the dominant tunable dye (liquid-state) laser source is replaced by solid-state media, for example Ti:sapphire laser, Cr:LiSAF laser, and optical parametric oscillator. It is expected that the integrated-tunable laser source can also be applied advantageously to spectroscopic applications. We are developing two types of integrated tunable laser. One of them is based on the solid-state laser medium, and another is based on organic dye. In this work, a Rhodamine 6G dye is doped in a poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) waveguide. By using two beams holographic distributed feedback (DFB), the waveguide was pumped and operated as a tunable laser.