Tunable single-mode photonic lasing from zirconia inverse opal photonic crystals

Lasing from zirconia inverse opal photonic crystal structures infiltrated by solutions of rhodamine dyes was found to exhibit single-mode lasing peaks with spectral width less than 1 nm and quality factor in excess of 4000. The lasing occurs within the approximate range of high-reflectance spectral region associated with photonic stop band along (111) crystallographic direction, but its wavelength is not fixed to the corresponding Bragg wavelength of the periodic structure, and depends on the spectral position of the gain band. This lasing regime can be useful for realizing tunable single-mode photonic crystal lasers.