High-Gain Long-Lived Amplified Spontaneous Emission from Dye-Doped Fluorinated Polyimide Planar Waveguides

Long-lived amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) action is demonstrated in waveguides based in transparent newly synthesized fluorinated polyimides (FPI) doped with laser dye Pyrromethene 597. Relevant parameters to optimize the lasing performance of the guides are the polymer chain density and fluorine content. The guide with the higher fluorine content was the most stable, with the ASE emission remaining at 50% of its initial value after 40 000 pump pulses of approximate to 220 kW . cm(-2) delivered at a repetition rate of 5 Hz. Net gains of up to 93 cm(-2) were obtained at a pump intensity of about 500 kW . cm(-2) (34 mu J pulse(-1)).