Cylindrical microlasers and light emitting devices from conducting polymers

Substantially improved, photopumped polymer lasers are demonstrated using microrings and microdisks of various diameters D ranging from 5 to 200 mu m. Various cavity-dependent laser modes were observed, which for D<10 mu m were dominated by a single longitudinal mode with linewidth of less than 1 Angstrom. These microlasers were also characterized by Q of order 5000, low threshold excitation energy of order 100 pJ/pulse for pulse duration ranging from 100 ps to sub-mu s, and an abrupt increase in the emission directionality and polarization degree. Light emitting diodes with cylindrical geometry, fully compatible with these microlasers are also demonstrated. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.