Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
Spectrophotometry in the ultraviolet-visible-infrared range was used to investigate the optical properties of polymer bilayers obtained by spin coating polycarbonate films about 1 μm thick on top of pyrromethene-doped polyvinylcarbazole (PVK) layers deposited on glass. Due to the light confinement in the PVK plane, the laser-dye photoluminescence collected along the polymer plane was linearly polarized and shifted from green to yellow according to the active film thickness. To laterally contain light, microstructures were imprinted on laser-dye-doped PVK films by soft lithography. The photoluminescence coming out of a microstructured film and the film topography were analyzed by scanning near-field optical microscopy.