Dye-doped fluorinated polyimides as efficient long-lived wave-guide lasers and amplifiers

The use of organic wave-guide lasers based on dye-doped polymers has attracted much attention over the last decade for their applications in integrated photonics. Here we demonstrate that long-lived laser action can be achieved in two transparent FPI wave-guides (6F6F and 6FIMMDA) doped with laser dye Pyrromethene 597 (PM597). Asymmetric planar waveguides consisting of 6F6F/PM597 and 6FIMMDA/PM597 thin films deposited onto glass substrates were prepared using the extender roller technique, rendering films with 9 mum thickness and 2.5 x 10^-2 M dye concentration.