Influence of the cation type on the DFB lasing performance of dye-doped azobenzene-containing polyelectrolytes

The well-known commercially available azobenzene-containing polyelectrolyte poly{1-[4-(3-carboxy-4-hydroxyphenylazo)benzenesulfonamido]-1,2-ethanediyl, sodium salt} (PAZO-Na) has been easily modified by converting it into carboxylic acid and different salts. These new materials, similar to original PAZO-Na, were used as matrices to create DFB lasers based on polarization gratings. Such matrix modification allowed us to obtain laser generation with the laser dye 1,2,3,5,6,7-hexamethyl-8-cyanopyrromethene-difluoroborate complex (pyrromethene 650), to increase the laser device stability (up to a half-life time of 4 × 104pulses) and to considerably increase the laser efficiency (up to 9%). Therefore, these polymer composites can be considered as cheap and promising materials for photonics, optoelectronics, and sensor applications.