Continuous-wave solid-state dye laser

We report the first realization of a cw solid-state dye laser. The laser medium consists of a laser dye (Rhodamine 6G) dissolved in a photopolymer. The UV-cured solution is sandwiched between two DVD substrates. The resonator design was derived from a conventional liquid solvent dye laser geometry. The laser radiation can be tuned from 565 to 615 nm by using a birefringent filter. A pump power of 2 W leads to a cw output power of more than 20 mW. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America