Efficient optical materials based on fluorinated-polymeric silica aerogels

New hybrid solid-state dye laser materials based on highly porous silica aerogels saturated with laser dye pyrromethene 567 dissolved in copolymers of methyl methacrylate with different volumetric proportion of different fluorinated monomers have been synthesized. Remarkable lasing efficiency of up 32% was recorded with a highly stable laser operation with no sign of degradation in the laser output after 100,000 pump pulses in the same position under transversal pumping with 532 nm at 30 Hz repetition rate. These results make very promising the approach used in this work to enhance the lasing action of dye laser doped hybrid solid-state materials. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.