Random lasing in a dye-doped polymer thin film waveguide deposited on a Si surface microstructured by femtosecond laser ablation

Random laser action with ~8 nm of bandwidth from a special waveguide structure is reported. The waveguide structure is composed of a layer of rhodamine 6G-doped PMMA film and a silicon substrate with a microstructured surface induced by a femtosecond laser. The silicon substrate featured two-dimensional island-like microstructures with average sizes ranging from 0.8 μm to 3 μm and average heights at about 0.7 μm. A red-shift of laser peak positions and decrease of threshold were observed with decreasing size of silicon surface microstructures. The spectra at different probe directions were also measured, and the results reveal that the waveguide laser action is strongly confined within ±10° from the direction of the edge. The lasing modes emitted from the edge of the waveguide are found to be mainly transverse electric-polarized. Our experiments demonstrate a promising method to achieve waveguide random lasers.