Controlled self-assembly of organic composite microdisks for efficient output coupling of whispering-gallery-mode lasers.

Flexible microdisk whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators with high quality factors were achieved through the controlled assembly of organic materials with an emulsion-solvent-evaporation method. The high material compatibility of the assembled microdisks enabled us to realize low-threshold WGM lasers by doping with organic dyes as gain media. Furthermore, the emulsion-assisted self-assembly provided a strategy for the one-step fabrication of microwire-waveguide-connected microdisk heterostructures, which can be utilized for the efficient output of the isotropic WGM lasers from the coupled waveguides. We hope that these results will pave an avenue for the construction of new types of flexible WGM-based components for photonic integration.