"-What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Organic semiconductors are low cost and (generally) non-toxic and biodegradable light emitting materials. In addition, their broad spectrum of emission makes them ideal materials to replace inorganic semiconductors in traditional diode laser devices. However, organic semiconductors suffer from poor electrical properties and the injection of high current density required for lasing presents a big challenge. In this project we utilised a conceptually different approach than that of typical lasers namely, polariton lasing. For inorganic semiconductor laser diodes, it has been shown that polariton lasing mechanism can be achieved at threshold power that is hundred times lower than this in typical population inversion lasers. By implementing the same technology to organic semiconductors, the threshold can be decreased, so the various losses are decreased, which can lead to lasing in organic semiconductors by electrical pumping.
-Why is it important for society?
Replacing toxic and difficult to process inorganic semiconductors is one of they key actions needed for reverting global warming. Also, organic semiconductor lasers can potentially offer broader range of emission wavelengths
which will have tremendous impact in research and industry. The demonstration of an organic solid state laser, like the one we propose, would be tremendously important for the European and Global market. Diode-laser technology comprises about 46% of the total revenue (~$10 billion) in the global laser market; Therefore, any steps towards the realization of the first organic laser diode would represent a significant technological and scientific achievement. Furthermore, the proposed device offers a revolutionary bench-top device for fundamental studies of quantum fluids of light, a system that complements experiments in ultracold atomic quantum gases.
-What are the overall objectives?
The main objective of this project was to design and fabricate an electrically pumped organic polariton light-emitting microcavity and to study the polariton formation, thermalization and condensation under electrical injection. Fundamental understanding of the above processes could further lead to the demonstration of a practical organic semiconductor laser device.
-Conclusions of the action:
After evaluating different organic semiconductor emitters and OLED device architectures, we have chosen to proceed with the vertical cavity configuration, as it was proposed in the research plan. We successfully managed to fabricate OLED devices and perform all necessary optoelectronic studies. Moreover, we observed and demonstrate a fascinating new mechanism for converting blue emitting OLEDs to white OLEDs. More details can be found in our recent manuscript with title ""Converting an organic light-emitting diode from blue to white with Bragg modes"" which is under review in high impact peer-reviewed journal. Also, this technology is now a patent currently pending with Aalto University (no. 20195269, filed 3 April 2019).
We have also performed a series of optical studies to understand relaxation, thermalization, condensation and propagation of polariton in organic semiconductors. We performed a series of studies and the results were published in high-impact journals such as Nature Physics, Nano Letters and ACS Photonics. A fifth manuscript was also recently produced entitled ""Sub-picosecond thermalization dynamics in condensation of strongly
coupled lattice plasmons"" and it is under review in high impact peer-reviewed journal and as preprint in arXiv with number 1905.07609."
