Distributed feedback sol-gel zirconia channel waveguide lasers

We fabricated dye-doped zirconia channel waveguides using wet or dry etching of quartz substrates followed by sol-gel deposition of the Rhodamine 6G-doped zirconia in the channel. Distributed feedback laser action was generated in the channel waveguides by crossing two nanosecond laser beams at 532 nm. Maintaining the depth of the active zirconia layer at 3 μm, narrow linewidth lasing was achieved for rectangular channel waveguides with widths at 5, 6.5, and 10 μm. Wavelength tuning was achieved from 570 to 608 nm. The output laser mode was identified as the fundamental E₁₁^x mode. The dispersion behavior of the laser output was checked by comparing experiments with die predictions of Marcatili's theory.