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The influence of the azobenzene concentration on the photo-induced surface relief grating (SRG) formation in polymer films was investigated. Two series of polymers with 4-alkoxy-4'-cyanoazobenzene side groups were synthesized. In series A, the degree of substitution was varied, while in series B, azobenzene and biphenyl groups were introduced in varying composition, but the concentration of non-reacted HEMA-groups was kept constant. Photo-induction of the dichroism and the SRG was studied as function of the azobenzene concentration. An optimum was found for the SRG formation (76%), while the highest dichroism was induced at the lowest azobenzene concentration of 20%. The restriction of rotational and translational molecular motions observed at higher azobenzene concentration was explained by pi-pi stacking of the azobenzene moieties and interaction of unreacted HEMA groups
We demonstrate plasmonically nano-engineered coherent random lasing and stimulated emission enhancement in a hybrid gainmedium of organic semiconductors doped with core-shell plasmonic nanoparticles. The gain medium is composed of a 300 +/- 2 nm thin waveguide of an organic semiconductor, doped with 53 nm gold nanoparticle cores, isolated within silica shells. Upon loading the nanoparticles, the threshold of amplified spontaneous emission is reduced from 1.75 mu J cm(-2) x 10(2) for an undoped gain medium, to 0.35 mu J cm(-2) x 10(2) for a highly concentrated gain medium, and lasing spikes narrower than 0.1 nm are obtained. Most importantly, selection of silica shells with thicknesses of 10, 17 and 21 nm enables engineering of the plasmon-exciton energy coupling and consequently tuning of the laser slope efficiency. With this approach, the slope efficiency is increased by two times by decreasing the silica shell from 21 nm down to 10 nm, due to the enhancement of the localized electric field.
Threshold reduction and emission enhancement are reported for a gold nanoparticle-based waveguided random laser, exploiting the localized surface plasmon resonance excitation. It was experimentally found that a proper thickness of the spacer layer between the gold nanoparticles and the gain layer enhances the random laser performance. It tunes the coupling between the gain polymer and the gold nanoparticles and avoids the quenching of emission in close contact to the gold nanoparticles which is considered as one of the main sources of loss in the current laser system. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4800776]