Vector vortex beam emission from organic semiconductor microlasers

High order Bessel beams (HOBBs) carrying discrete orbital angular momentum (OAM) are currently being explored for use in applications ranging from optical trapping to high-speed communication, all of which would benefit from the availability of compact semiconductor lasers with direct HOBB output. Here, we use an organic semiconductor gain medium to demonstrate a bilayer microdisk laser architecture that yields cylindrical vector HOBB emission with OAM quanta per photon >400h. These devices feature azimuthally polarized, few-mode lasing with optical pumping thresholds <100 μJ/cm² and emission wavelengths that can be tuned over a range of ∼40 nm by varying the organic microdisk thickness. Our approach is generally applicable to organic and inorganic semiconductors alike and may therefore serve as a practical route for integrating HOBB functionality into a range of optoelectronic and photonic applications throughout the visible and near-infrared spectrum.