Ultrafast optical switching in distributed feedback polymer laser

Abstract

We show that polymer distributed feedback lasers can be optically controlled at high bit-rate by using an ultrashort gate pulse. We perform switching-off of the laser emission exploiting the photogeneration of charge carriers from the singlet, emitting state induced, by the gate. We study this resonant non-linear process and we show that the system can in principle work at 500GHz repetition rate. There could be the possibility for our devices to be integrated into plastic waveguides or fibers, to develop plastic, large-scale integrated, ultrafast optical logic.