Enhanced Lasing in Metal-Insulator-Metal Waveguide Slab based on Gold Coated Nanoporous Anodic Alumina Membrane

We studied lasing in Rh6G dye infiltrated nanoporous anodic alumina membrane-based waveguide slab fabricated on top of an aluminum substrate. An amplifying liquid dye was circulated throughout the nanoporous alumina slab due to the wetting effect. A comparative study of lasing threshold on the 10 µm gold-coated portion of the nanoporous alumina (acting as a metal-insulator-metal waveguide) and bare alumina portion confirms the enhanced lasing emission in the former scenario. We also reduced the slab thickness to about 1.5 µm, and obtained stabilized lasing from gold coated alumina membrane.