Continuous-wave stimulated emission and optical amplification in europium (III)-aluminum nanocluster-doped polymeric waveguide

Abstract

The authors have demonstrated stimulated emission from polymer-based planar waveguide doped with Eu–Al nanoclusters under continuous-wave optical pumping. For the waveguide sample with a nanocluster concentration of 5.0wt%, amplified spontaneous emission was observed in the spectra of the light decoupled from the waveguide edge under a pumping density of 0.16–1.55W∕cm2. The optical gain coefficient was 0.92mm−1 when pumped at 1.55W∕cm2. The well-suppressed concentration quenching and multiphonon quenching may cause the high-gain and low-threshold optical amplification. These results show that the Eu–Al nanocluster is a promising material for polymer-based solid-state lasers and waveguide-type optical amplifiers.