Long lifetime and high repetition rate operation from distributed feedback plastic waveguided dye lasers

Long lifetime and high repetition rate laser operation was demonstrated from laser-dye-doped waveguides with distributed feedback (DFB) structures. The waveguides were fabricated with a spin-coating and lithography techniques, and DFB structure was written by an ultraviolet holography technique. A compact frequency-doubled Nd:YAG microchip laser was used as a pumping source, and the laser output wavelength range of 575-945 nm was obtained from 10 different kinds of laser-dye-doped plastic film and the laser performance was evaluated about 5 of them. Very low pumping energy requirement of around several muJ could extend the durabilities of the DFB dye-doped waveguides, and the lifetime of more than one million shots was obtained. Further a high repetition laser operation up to 1000 pps was demonstrated with an output energy stability of less than +/-0.5%. A palm-top size tunable laser is realized by this configuration. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.