Molded plastic micro-cavity lasers

A novel fabrication method, based on a combination of the well-known nano-imprint lithography technique, micro-molding and bonding of two polymer layers is presented. As a first demonstration, a nano-imprinted micro-cavity plastic dye laser suitable for integration into lab-on-a-chip micro-systems is fabricated. The polymer polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is used due to its high transparency in the visible range and its robustness to laser radiation. As the active material for laser, amplification, the laser dye Rhodamine 6G ClO4 was chosen due to its strong fluorescence and good robustness to heating. The 1.5-mum thick dye-doped PMMA devices have the lateral shapes of either a trapezoid or a triangle. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.