Epitaxial growth of highly-oriented AlPO4-5 molecular sieve films for microlaser systems

Abstract

For the first time highly-oriented AlPO₄-5 molecular sieve films have been achieved on millimeter-sized AlPO₄-5 single crystal substrates by epitaxial growth. The orientation of the molecular sieve films can be adjusted via changing the basal faces of the substrate crystal. Furthermore, a laser dye has been successfully encapsulated within such molecular sieve films by in situ crystallization. The controlled orientation of the dye-loaded molecular sieve films and the size around the optical wavelength of the microcrystals in the film may find promising applications in optics, especially in microlaser systems.