Mechanically Contacted Distributed-Feedback Optical Microcavity

We report a construction of distributed-feedback (DFB) optical microcavities, which is realized through mechanical contact between a high-quality planar thin film of a polymeric semiconductor and a large-area homogeneous nanograting. Using poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-(benzo[2,1,3] thiadiazol-4,8-diyl)] (F8BT) as the active medium for the planar layer, we achieve strong amplified spontaneous emission from such a microcavity with a low threshold. This not only simplifies largely the fabrication techniques for DFB microcavities, but also avoids the unexpected chemical interactions during solution processing between the organic semiconductors and the nanograting materials. Furthermore, high-quality polymer thin films with high surface smoothness and high thickness homogeneity are employed without any modulations for constructing the microcavities. This also suggests new designs of microcavity light-emitting diodes, or even for realizing electrically pumped polymer lasers, simply by metallizing the dielectric nanogratings as the electrodes.