Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
We study the optical gain for various doping concentrations in a dye doped polymer (poly-[9,9-dioctylfluorene] with 6,6'-[2,2'-octyloxy-1,1'-binaphthyl] spacer groups (BN-PFO) doped by the stilbene dye 1,4-bis[2-[4-[N,N-di[p-tolyl]amino]phenyl]vinyl-benzene] (DPAVB)). In such a guest-host-system (GHS) the occupation of the upper laser level (dopant site) is due to Förster energy transfer (FET), which strongly depends on the donor acceptor distance and hence on the concentration of the laser dye. Therefore, the doping concentration is varied over a wide range and the gain coefficients are measured at various excitation densities to analyze the stimulated emission cross section.
For the investigated GHS maximum gain coefficients up to ∼340 1/cm were found at absorbed pump energy densities of around 50 μJ/cm2. It will be shown that the stimulated emission cross section (σ = 1.8 × 10−16 cm2) is concentration independent which is quite different to a recently investigated small molecule based GHS. These effects will be discussed considering the rate and exciton diffusion constants.