Operational lifetime improvement of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) active waveguides by thermal lamination

摘要

We investigate the encapsulation performances of polyethylene terephthalate-poly (ethylene vinyl acetate) laminating pouches, thermally laminated on flexible poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene)(PF8) active waveguides showing amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). We show that the lamination process does not cause significant degradation of the PF8 emission properties and preserves the ASE properties of the waveguide, with an ASE threshold increase of only 15%. A clear increase of the ASE operational lifetime up to 2.3 times is observed after lamination, together with stable ASE threshold for more than 6 months after the device realization, thus proposing thermal lamination as a straightforward technique to encapsulate organic active waveguides, preserving the possibility to realize flexible devices. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.