Continuously tunable distributed feedback polymer laser

A fanshaped structure is proposed to achieve a continuously tunable polymer laser. The structure with gradual periods is fabricated by electron beam lithography, which acts as a distributed feedback cavity for the polymer laser. A light-emitting polymer is spin-coated on the cavity to form an active layer. The pump beam is focused by a cylindrical lens to a narrow stripe on the sample surface. When the position of the pump stripe on the fanshaped cavity is changed from long period (370 nm) to short period (340 nm) and vice versa, the output wavelength of the laser is continuously tuned from 584 nm to 552 nm. Tuning behavior can be interpreted by the Bragg condition. These results can be used to explore compact laser sources.