Wave-guided sol-gel glass lasers

Abstract
Planar waveguides are obtained by deposition of sol-gel precursors with a variety of laser dyes on glass or quartz plates at low temperature. The laser radiation is emitted in the film or the support, depending on the difference between the refractive indices of the two media. Tunable laser emission was observed in the visible spectral range in films doped by perylimide, oxazine, xantene, cyanine and merocyanine dyes. Efficient laser amplifiers can be constructed.