Laser properties and photostabilities of laser dyes doped in ORMOSILs

Laser dyes such as rhodamine B, rhodamine 6G, pyrromethene 567, perylene orange and perylene red were doped into GPTMS-, MTES- and VTES-derived organically modified silicates (ORMOSILs) by sol-gel process. A longitudinal pumped solid-state dye laser was established with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser source. The lifetimes of these dyes in various ORMOSILs were investigated by using such an experimental setup at a pump repetition rate of 2 Hz and pump intensity of 0.1 or 1.4 J/cm(2). The lifetime of 60 000 pulses, 50 GJ/mol in normalized photostability, was obtained for the pyrromethene 567 doped in MTES-derived ORMOSIL with the net sample thickness of 4 mm when its output energy declined to 50% of its initial value. The slope efficiencies of pyrromethene 567 and perylene orange in various host media were also measured. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.