• Solid-state dye laser lases continuously

    Although organic solid-state dye lasers have the potential for numerous applications, to date they have only been pumped with pulsed light sources.
    July 1, 2006
    2 min read

    Although organic solid-state dye lasers have the potential for numerous applications, to date they have only been pumped with pulsed light sources. Continuous-wave (CW) operation has not been possible because of long-lived transient absorption that gradually builds up, reducing the gain and terminating the lasing process. But thanks to a high-quality thin-film laser medium sandwiched between two clear digital video disks (DVDs; chosen for mechanical and optical-design reasons), researchers at Universität Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Universität Siegen (Siegen, Germany) have demonstrated CW lasing of more than 20 mW over a tuning range of more than 40 nm.

    The gain medium is a 50- to 100-µm-thick layer of rhodamine 6G dye incorporated in a stable polymer host with a specific concentration at the pump wavelength of 532 nm. Sandwiched between the DVDs, the solid dye-laser disk has an overall thickness of approximately 1.2 mm and a diameter of 120 mm. By rotating the laser disk with a frequency of 50 to 100 Hz and translating it perpendicular to the rotational axis with a velocity of 100 to 300 µm/s, the accumulation of long-lived excited states in the gain volume is eliminated and CW lasing is possible. Contact Uli Lemmer at [email protected].

    Sign up for Laser Focus World Newsletters
    Get the latest news and updates.

    Voice Your Opinion!

    To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Laser Focus World, create an account today!