One of the biggest challenges of organic optoelectronics is the realization of the first organic laser diode (electrically pumped) which has a very strong potential for many applications. Similar to what happened in the field of inorganic optoelectronics when transforming LEDs into LDs, the race is on to transform an OLED into an OLD. This involves the development of innovative solutions to overcome the difficulties inherent in organic materials and the electric pump. This book presents the elements of physics, materials and technologies that allow us to understand the basics of organic lasers and to capture the progress made. It also provides guidance for future developments towards the organic laser diode. - Describes the latest advancements in the development of organic lasers, one of the most challenging issues of the early part of this century - Provides a detailed description of material features - Features the state-of-the-art of organic sources and their potential applications - Contains several topics currently under development

Organic Lasers and Organic Photonics is the first book, since the early 1990s, to address the technology and applications of organic dye lasers and provide an insightful perspective into the vast fields of organic lasers and their applications. The latest generation of organic lasers have opened the horizon to the realm of miniaturized devices with their own array of applications. This book also provides a comprehensive insight into the world of organic dye molecules with chapters that also explore the exciting fields optogenetics, organic laser medicine, and quantum communications. This co-edited book has been compiled by leading experts in the field of organic lasers and organic photonics, each providing a unique insight into the practical applications of such lasers as well as electrically-pumped organic semiconductor coherent sources, their physics, technology and future prospects. Part of Series in Coherent Sources and Applications.

Organic lasers are broadly tunable coherent sources, potentially compact, convenient and manufactured at low-costs. Appeared in the mid 60’s as solid-state alternatives for liquid dye lasers, they recently gained a new dimension after the demonstration of organic semiconductor lasers in the 90's. More recently, new perspectives appeared at the nanoscale, with organic polariton and surface plasmon lasers. After a brief reminder to laser physics, a first chapter exposes what makes organic solid-state organic lasers specific. The laser architectures used in organic lasers are then reviewed, with a state-of-the-art review of the performances of devices with regard to output power, threshold, lifetime, beam quality etc. A survey of the recent trends in the field is given, highlighting the latest developments with a special focus on the challenges remaining for achieving direct electrical pumping of organic semiconductor lasers. A last chapter covers the applications of organic solid-state lasers.

In the past 30 years, organic conjugated molecules have received a lot of attention in research because of their unique combination of active properties typical of semiconductors and the technological appeal typical of plastic materials. Among the different applications proposed for organic materials, organic lasers are quickly approaching the performance required in real devices, while research on novel active materials is still ongoing. The book covers the basic aspects of the measurement techniques of optical gain and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in organic films as well as the photophysics of organic materials that can be understood using ASE measurements. It reviews the recent advances in the development of new active materials for organic lasers as well as the actual state of the art of scattering-assisted random lasers and of strongly coupled organic microcavities, both promising interesting developments in the near future. Finally, it gives a detailed review of the state of the art of the organic lasers actually closest to real applications, namely external cavity lasers and distributed feedback lasers. The book is unique that it covers basic aspects, technological aspects, and systems, which are still a subject of basic science research.

This thesis focuses on two areas - the development of miniature plastic lasers that can be powered by LEDs, and the application of these lasers as highly sensitive sensors for vapours of nitroaromatic explosives (e.g. TNT). Polymer lasers are extremely compact visible lasers; the research described in the thesis is groundbreaking, driving forward the technology and physical understanding to allow these lasers to be routinely pumped by a single high-power LED. A notable advance in the work is the demonstration of nanoimprinted polymer lasers, which exhibit the world's lowest pump threshold densities by two orders of magnitude. The thesis also advances the application of these compact, novel lasers as highly sensitive detectors of explosive vapours, demonstrating that rapid detection can be achieved when microporous polymers are used. This work also demonstrates a prototype CMOS-based microsystem sensor for explosive vapours, exploiting a new detection approach.

The field of organic electronics has seen a steady growth over the last 15 years. At the same time, our scientific understanding of how to achieve optimum device performance has grown, and this book gives an overview of our present-day knowledge of the physics behind organic semiconductor devices. Based on the very successful first edition, the editors have invited top scientists from the US, Japan, and Europe to include the developments from recent years, covering such fundamental issues as: - growth and characterization of thin films of organic semiconductors, - charge transport and photophysical properties of the materials as well as their electronic structure at interfaces, and - analysis and modeling of devices like organic light-emitting diodes or organic lasers. The result is an overview of the field for both readers with basic knowledge and for an application-oriented audience. It thus bridges the gap between textbook knowledge largely based on crystalline molecular solids and those books focusing more on device applications.

This book reviews basic electromagnetic (EM) wave theory and applies it specifically to lasers in order to give the reader not only tangible examples of how the theory is manifested in real life, but also practical knowledge about lasers, and their operation and usage. The latter can be useful for those involved with using lasers. As a short treatise on this subject matter, this book is not intended to dwell deeply into the details of EM waves nor lasers. A bibliography is provided for those who wish to explore in more depth the topics covered in this book. Rather the aim of this book is to offer a quick overview, which will allow the reader to gain a competent general understanding of EM waves and lasers.

Device Architecture and Materials for Organic Light-Emitting Devices focuses on the design of new device and material concepts for organic light-emitting devices, thereby targeting high current densities and an improved control of the triplet concentration. A new light-emitting device architecture, the OLED with field-effect electron transport, is demonstrated. This device is a hybrid between a diode and a field-effect transistor. Compared to conventional OLEDs, the metallic cathode is displaced by one to several micrometers from the light-emitting zone, reducing optical absorption losses. The electrons injected by the cathode accumulate at an organic heterojunction and are transported to the light-emission zone by field-effect. High mobilities for charge carriers are achieved in this way, enabling a high current density and a reduced number of charge carriers in the device. Pulsed excitation experiments show that pulses down to 1 μs can be applied to this structure without affecting the light intensity, suggesting that pulsed excitation might be useful to reduce the accumulation of triplets in the device. The combination of all these properties makes the OLED with field-effect electron transport particularly interesting for waveguide devices and future electrically pumped lasers. In addition, triplet-emitter doped organic materials, as well as the use of triplet scavengers in conjugated polymers are investigated.