Highly-photostable and mechanically flexible all-organic semiconductor lasers

Two formats of all-organic distributed-feedback lasers with improved photostability, respectively called nanocomposite and encapsulated lasers, are reported. These lasers are compatible with mechanically-flexible platforms and were entirely fabricated using softlithography and spin-coating techniques. The gain elements in both types of lasers were monodisperse π-conjugated star-shaped macromolecules (oligofluorene truxene, T3). In the nanocomposites lasers, these elements were incorporated into a transparent polyimide matrix, while in the encapsulated devices a neat layer of T3 was overcoated with Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The T3-nanocomposite devices demonstrated a 1/e degradation energy dosage up to ~27.0 ± 6.5 J/cm with a threshold fluence of 115 ± 10 μJ/cm. This represents a 3-fold improvement in operation lifetime under ambient conditions compared to the equivalent laser made with neat organic films, albeit with a 1.6-time increase in threshold. 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