3rd International Conference Laser M2P

J. Phys. IV France 04 (1994) C4-369-C4-372
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:1994488

Agile solid state dye lasers

M. CANVA¹, P. GEORGES¹, J.-F. PERELGRITZ¹, A. BRUN¹, F. CHAPUT² and J.-P. BOILOT<sup>2

1</sup>  Groupe d'Optique Non-Linéaire, Institut d'Optique Théorique et Appliquée, Unité Associée 14, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Bâtiment 503, BP. 147, 91403 Orsay cedex, France
²  Groupe de Chimie du Solide, Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Unité Associée 1254-D, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau cedex, France

Abstract
Different organic dye molecules were incorporated in solid gels by the sol gel process with a view to develop tunable solid state laser applications. We studied the laser efficiency of these materials by using a nanosecond frequency doubled Nd:YAG as the pump laser. Slope efficiency up to 30 % with 3 mJ output energy and half energy lifetime of 40,000 shots were thus obtained. This large lifetime was observed with the perylene red molecules despite of a lower slope efficiency (19%). Tunability over 50 nm was obtained with the perylene or pyrromethene dyes and 75 nm in the case of the xanthylium dye.

© EDP Sciences 1994