Lasing from dye-doped photonic crystals with graded layers in dichromate gelatin emulsions

Abstract

We report on optically pumped lasing from dye-doped, graded-spacing layer structures of dichromate gelatin emulsions fabricated using two-beam holographic interference. The graded layers exhibited deep and wide photonic band gaps. Multimode lasing with both a low threshold and a high quality factor was observed at the band edge of the photonic band gap. We modeled the emissions from the dye-doped graded layer system using a finite difference time domain technique and achieved good agreement with experimental results.