The optical gain mechanism in solid conjugated polymers

We report on stimulated emission from a solid conjugated methyl-substituted ladder-type poly(paraphenylene). The threshold for stimulated emission as well as the spectral narrowing is measured. Upon exciting within the low energy tail of the S-1-S-0 (0-0) absorption band narrow emission lines offset from the excitation by the energies of the dominant vibrational modes are observed. From these measurements we conclude that vibronic sublevels play a major role in the optical gain mechanism. Hence, the gain mechanism can be explained in terms of molecularly excited states. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.