Organic plastic laser in holographic materials by photopolymerization

We demonstrate how to excite a laser mode in a thin film of organic holographic material. By initiating a photopolymerization process with visible light, we generate a distributed feedback laser in such films. The technique fulfills two important aims. First, the construction of a tunable laser with the help of an interferometric system and, second, the fabrication of a corrugated surface without the help of any etching or photolithography process. In short, we demonstrate a full laser action in a plastic medium doped with rhodamine 6G, which acts as a lasing dye. Usually, a major problem with such lasers is the aging of the dye. In the approach we develop, this problem can be overcome by periodically cleaning the gain region and refilling it with fresh dye molecules.