Photonic crystal templates for organic solid-state lasers

We report a solid-state laser composed of an Al2 O3 photonic crystal and an organic gain medium. The photonic crystal was fabricated through the nanoimprinting technique and an electrochemical process, which enables transfer of a periodic pattern to the photonic crystal and control of its stop band. When the photonic crystal was infiltrated with the polymer medium containing laser dye, we obtained laser emission under optical excitation. The minimum laser threshold was about 2.4 nJpulse, where the linewidth of the laser emission was as narrow as 0.09 nm. We explain the laser action based on the band edge effect, while the precise control of the laser mode and oscillation wavelength depends on control of the stop band and small changes in the refractive index of the gain medium.