Photostability of luminescent dyes in solid-state dye lasers

Fluorescence photobleaching was measured in dye-impregnated sol-gel/polymer composite glasses. These fluorescent glasses were used as the gain medium in a transverse-pumped solid-state dye laser. In this configuration, the fluorescent glass was excited by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser (about 6 mJ/pulse) either while placed in an optical cavity (i.e., functioning as a pulsed laser) or with the optical cavity blocked, so that lasing did not occur. The decay of the fluorescence signal versus cumulative excitation energy was recorded. We found that the rate of photobleaching decreased when the glass was lasing, as compared to the case where the optical cavity was blocked. This paper presents these results, and suggests a simple kinetic model that may explain this phenomenon. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.