Laser performance in dye-molecule-doped xerogels

Laser oscillation was easily achieved in all hand polished rhodamine 6G, DCM and rhodamine 6G + DCM doped titania containing ormosil xerogels. Two kinds of xerogels prepared by sol-gel method were used as dye hosts. Their optical properties and microstructural characteristics were reported. Slope efficiency, photostability, tunable bandwidth and surface damage threshold of these dye lasers were examined. The effect of dye concentration and dye-matrix combination on the fluorescent emission, slope efficiency, photostability and tunable bandwidth was discussed. Laser efficiency of 13% and photostability of 5400 pulses at 4 J/cm2, 1 Hz repetition was obtained in 2 X 10-4 rhodamine 6G doped dye laser.