Reducing the threshold of organic polariton lasers by active layer micropatterning and lateral confinement

Julia Witt; Jiwoo Oh; Tommaso Marcato; Andreas Mischok; Chih-Jen Shih; Malte C. Gather

doi:10.1002/sstr.202600009

Reducing the threshold of organic polariton lasers by active layer micropatterning and lateral confinement

Julia Witt
, Jiwoo Oh
, Tommaso Marcato
, Andreas Mischok
, Chih-Jen Shih^*
, Malte C. Gather^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are vital for modern photonics, offering compactness, low thresholds, and ease of integration. Pushing them to wavelength-scale dimensions, however, introduces fabrication and performance challenges, especially when using organic materials. Here, we demonstrate the miniaturization of organic polariton VCSELs based on the blue emitter molecule BSBCz. Using emitter:host evaporation through ultra-thin shadow masks, we fabricate isolated microcavities with sizes down to 5 µm, the smallest dimensions reported so far for coevaporation micropatterning, and achieved optically-pumped polariton lasing with record-low thresholds down to 2.63 pJ (0.21 µJ/cm²), substantially lower than the 21.2 pJ (6.75 µJ/cm²) obtained for unpatterned reference devices. We further elucidate the influence of concentration of active material. Our lateral confinement approach paves the way for scalable, low-threshold polariton lasers and may support the future development of monolithically integrated organic lasers driven by direct current injection.

Original language	English
Article number	e202600009
Number of pages	8
Journal	Small Structures
Volume	7
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/sstr.202600009
Publication status	Published - 9 May 2026

Keywords

BSBCz
DBR
Miniaturization
Polariton lasing
Strong light-matter coupling

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Witt_2026_SS_Reducing-threshold-organic-polariton-lasers_CC
© 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Final published version, 3.27 MBLicence: CC BY

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Reducing the Threshold of Organic Polariton Lasers by Active Layer Micropatterning and Lateral Confinement (dataset)
Witt, J. (Creator), Oh, J. (Creator), Marcato, T. (Creator), Mischok, A. (Creator), Shih, C. (Creator) & Gather, M. (Creator), University of St Andrews, 12 May 2026
DOI: 10.17630/74dfb732-6880-459b-beec-db827c8bb6e4
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title = "Reducing the threshold of organic polariton lasers by active layer micropatterning and lateral confinement",

abstract = "Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are vital for modern photonics, offering compactness, low thresholds, and ease of integration. Pushing them to wavelength-scale dimensions, however, introduces fabrication and performance challenges, especially when using organic materials. Here, we demonstrate the miniaturization of organic polariton VCSELs based on the blue emitter molecule BSBCz. Using emitter:host evaporation through ultra-thin shadow masks, we fabricate isolated microcavities with sizes down to 5 µm, the smallest dimensions reported so far for coevaporation micropatterning, and achieved optically-pumped polariton lasing with record-low thresholds down to 2.63 pJ (0.21 µJ/cm2), substantially lower than the 21.2 pJ (6.75 µJ/cm2) obtained for unpatterned reference devices. We further elucidate the influence of concentration of active material. Our lateral confinement approach paves the way for scalable, low-threshold polariton lasers and may support the future development of monolithically integrated organic lasers driven by direct current injection.",

keywords = "BSBCz, DBR, Miniaturization, Polariton lasing, Strong light-matter coupling",

author = "Julia Witt and Jiwoo Oh and Tommaso Marcato and Andreas Mischok and Chih-Jen Shih and Gather, \{Malte C.\}",

note = "Funding: The authors acknowledge financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Research Training Group “TIDE”, RTG2591). M.C.G. acknowledges funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Humboldt Professorship) and the European Research Council under the Europeans Union´s Horizon Europe Framework Programme/ERC Advanced grant agreement no. 101097878 (HyAngle). C.J.S., J.O., and T.M. acknowledge the Swiss National Science Foundation (project number 223243) and technical support from the microfabrication facilities at the Center for Micro-and Nanoscience at ETH H{\"o}nggerberg (FIRST) and the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center at IBM Research Zurich (BRNC).",

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T1 - Reducing the threshold of organic polariton lasers by active layer micropatterning and lateral confinement

AU - Witt, Julia

AU - Oh, Jiwoo

AU - Marcato, Tommaso

AU - Mischok, Andreas

AU - Shih, Chih-Jen

AU - Gather, Malte C.

N1 - Funding: The authors acknowledge financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Research Training Group “TIDE”, RTG2591). M.C.G. acknowledges funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Humboldt Professorship) and the European Research Council under the Europeans Union´s Horizon Europe Framework Programme/ERC Advanced grant agreement no. 101097878 (HyAngle). C.J.S., J.O., and T.M. acknowledge the Swiss National Science Foundation (project number 223243) and technical support from the microfabrication facilities at the Center for Micro-and Nanoscience at ETH Hönggerberg (FIRST) and the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center at IBM Research Zurich (BRNC).

PY - 2026/5/9

Y1 - 2026/5/9

N2 - Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are vital for modern photonics, offering compactness, low thresholds, and ease of integration. Pushing them to wavelength-scale dimensions, however, introduces fabrication and performance challenges, especially when using organic materials. Here, we demonstrate the miniaturization of organic polariton VCSELs based on the blue emitter molecule BSBCz. Using emitter:host evaporation through ultra-thin shadow masks, we fabricate isolated microcavities with sizes down to 5 µm, the smallest dimensions reported so far for coevaporation micropatterning, and achieved optically-pumped polariton lasing with record-low thresholds down to 2.63 pJ (0.21 µJ/cm2), substantially lower than the 21.2 pJ (6.75 µJ/cm2) obtained for unpatterned reference devices. We further elucidate the influence of concentration of active material. Our lateral confinement approach paves the way for scalable, low-threshold polariton lasers and may support the future development of monolithically integrated organic lasers driven by direct current injection.

AB - Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are vital for modern photonics, offering compactness, low thresholds, and ease of integration. Pushing them to wavelength-scale dimensions, however, introduces fabrication and performance challenges, especially when using organic materials. Here, we demonstrate the miniaturization of organic polariton VCSELs based on the blue emitter molecule BSBCz. Using emitter:host evaporation through ultra-thin shadow masks, we fabricate isolated microcavities with sizes down to 5 µm, the smallest dimensions reported so far for coevaporation micropatterning, and achieved optically-pumped polariton lasing with record-low thresholds down to 2.63 pJ (0.21 µJ/cm2), substantially lower than the 21.2 pJ (6.75 µJ/cm2) obtained for unpatterned reference devices. We further elucidate the influence of concentration of active material. Our lateral confinement approach paves the way for scalable, low-threshold polariton lasers and may support the future development of monolithically integrated organic lasers driven by direct current injection.

KW - BSBCz

KW - DBR

KW - Miniaturization

KW - Polariton lasing

KW - Strong light-matter coupling

U2 - 10.1002/sstr.202600009

DO - 10.1002/sstr.202600009

M3 - Article

SN - 2688-4062

VL - 7

JO - Small Structures

JF - Small Structures

IS - 5

M1 - e202600009

ER -

Reducing the threshold of organic polariton lasers by active layer micropatterning and lateral confinement

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Reducing the Threshold of Organic Polariton Lasers by Active Layer Micropatterning and Lateral Confinement (dataset)

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