Integration of organic semiconductor lasers and waveguides into PMMA based microfluidic lab-on-a-chip systems

We present poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) based microfluidic systems for biophotonic sensing applications. The fabrication of the devices is based on thermal nanoimprinting and thermal bonding of polymer substrates. We integrate and encapsulate distributed feedback (DFB) organic semiconductor lasers based on tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium (Alq3) doped with the laser dye 4-dicyanomethylene-2-methyl-6-(p dimethylaminostyril)-4H-pyrane (DCM). Deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography is used to induce waveguides into the PMMA, guiding the laser light to embedded microfluidic channels. Light of the integrated lasers is efficiently coupled into the waveguides by introducing a topographical step.