Simple dye laser with the solid state polymeric active medium pumped by the second harmonic of Nd:YAG laser (532 nm) is presented. Active medium is made of dye-doped polyurethane acrylate (PUA) prepared by radical photopolymerization. Laser dyes in PUA are characterized by some peculiarities in spectral and photochemical properties which are important for lasing. To attain high laser efficiency, the hemispherical resonator with total length of 12 cm was used. In this case laser efficiency exceeds 30% with tuning range of 545-750 nm and spectral linewidth 0.4 nm. For removing the thermo-optical distortions in active polymeric medium and increasing its operational lifetime the original scanning system of active element has been constructed. It provides a possibility to realize the repetition rate up to 25 Hz (at peak intensity up to 80 MW/cm²) and to obtain the operational lifetime more than one million pulses for the proposed dyes. The elaborated laser has the certain advantages as compared to solid state Ti:Sapphire laser in relation to the peak power output and optical damage of active medium.

Date Published: 17 April 1995
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 2380, UV and Visible Lasers and Laser Crystal Growth, (17 April 1995); doi: 10.1117/12.206964

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2380:
UV and Visible Lasers and Laser Crystal Growth
Richard Scheps; Milan R. Kokta, Editor(s)