Optoelectronics Materials and components characterization for Organic Inorganic Laser Assembling S.Penna 1 , A.Reale 1 , G.M. Tosi Beleffi 2 , P.S. André 3 , A.L.J. Teixeira 3 , M.Nakao 4 , S.Shinada 4 and N.Wada 4 1 Research Dept, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, 00100, Italy Phone: +(39)0654444020, Fax: +(39)0654447719, Email: stefano.penna@uniroma2.it 2 ISCTI, Ministry of Economic Development Communication Department, Rome, 00144, Italy Phone: +(39)0654444364, Fax: +(39)54447719, Email: giorgio.tosibeleffi@comunicazioni.it 3 Instituto de Telecomunicações Campus Universitário de Santiago 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal Phone: +(351)234377900, Fax: +(351)234377901, Email: pandre@av.it.pt 4 NICT, National Inst. of Inf. and Communications Technology, Tokio, 184-8795, Japan Phone: +(81)9053270539, Fax: +(81) 9053270540, Email: wada@nict.go.jp Abstract Authors reports simulations and experimental results on a small molecule-on-silica based planar grating implementation for next generation optical lasing applications. Introduction Every year the telecommunication world experiences the emergence of new services, new technologies and convergences along the existing services. In particular, the internet access induced a packet traffic explosion owing to applications like video sharing, remote storage et alt. Which impose challenges resulting from the high bandwidth requirements but also from the nature of the traffic (IP). To face this evolution and become more competitive, the telecommunications market requires continuous improvement and cost effective solutions. The enormous needs to expand the available bandwidth impose the appearance of alternatives to the electronic domain, which is intrinsically limited in terms of signal propagation and switching speeds and in terms of power consumption. In this context, new hybrid generation photonics applications may revolutionize the telecommunication world because of their larger information capacity, low transmission losses and heat generation, immunity to cross-talk and electromagnetic interference. Organic materials seem to be promising elements to meet these requirements of low cost and compactness, considered as key in the telecommunication scenario, because of their low processing costs and their amorphous nature, that allows to overcome the traditional limits of the crystalline structure and the doped glasses. The aim of the authors is to set up a low cost processed organic inorganic layered structure, for the implementation of a C band laser source to be utilized in the optical network unit (ONUs) at the end user premises. The article is organized as follow. After the characterization of the active material and the substrate, simulation results are reported in order to model the grating and to characterize the overall structure. After that the authors report the characterization of the nano-imprinting process, fundamental step to proceed for the whole source implementation. To model and realize the DFB emitting source, a structure as reported in Fig. 1 has been considered. W T and W are geometric parameters,  is the grating pitch, g is depth, d 2 and d 3 are the substrates thickness, all these parameters are necessary to model the grating and extract fundamental parameters of the waveguided DFB cavity as Q factor, K coupling coefficient and the cavity length [1]. The overall approach, i.e. for the fabrication of the whole ErQ-based DFB laser, has been based on the selection and building up of the basic components reported in Fig.1. The active material, the substrate and the grating. As active material, has been used the Tris(8- hydroxyquinolinato) erbium(III) (ErQ), up today the most efficient organic emitter in the C band, often used as a benchmark to evaluate the IR efficiency of new compounds [2]. ErQ lies in the organolanthanide class [3], so the ErQ molecule is composed by an organic ligand, that exhibits a good absorption cross section (10 - 18 cm 2 ), linked to an Erbium ion: the ligand is responsible of the antenna effect which allows for an easy excitation of the molecule and an effective sensitization of Erbium [4]. The ErQ powder (658502 from Aldrich) was deposited on 1 μm thick SiO 2 -covered Si substrate by vacuum thermal evaporation in quartz Fig. 1. ErQ DFB expected layered structure (left side). Fundamental grating geometric parameters (right side). FO1 978-1-4244-4103-7/09/$25.0 © 2009 IEEE Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA. Downloaded on November 13, 2009 at 10:56 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.