Abstract
We report the solid-state optical gain characteristics of a spiroanthracenefluorene polymer, namely, poly(9-spiro(10,10-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-
10
H
-anthracene)fluorene) (PEHSAF), specifically designed for thermal stability. An efficient stimulated emission occurs at
λ
=
445
nm
under amplified spontaneous emission conditions for asymmetric slab waveguide structures. The modal gain and propagation loss coefficients were found to be
g
⩽
38
cm
−
1
and
α
=
0.8
cm
−
1
, respectively. The PEHSAF stimulated emission characteristics are shown to be thermally stable
in vacuo
for temperatures up to 250°C. Surface-emitting distributed feedback lasers have been fabricated by spin-coating PEHSAF onto one-dimensional grating structures. The lasers operate in the blue spectral region and exhibit low oscillation thresholds
(
⩾
18
nJ
)
and relatively high slope efficiencies
(
⩽
5
%
)
. Varying the PEHSAF film thickness allows the tuning of the emission wavelength within a 16 nm window.