8.2.1 Solid-State Dye Laser and its Advantages

Liquid dye lasers have some disadvantages ^[14]: the whole system is bulky and rather complicated, the lifetime of dye solutions are short, and the volatile solvents are toxic. Another problem is the dimers of dye molecules in solutions, which leads to the decrease of quantum yields and other problems.

Since mid 1980s, intensive efforts have been devoted to solid-state dye laser materials, which can make the system compact and miniaturized and the laser medium replacement simple. Compared with the liquid counterpart, the thermal lens effect is prohibited, and the populated probability of triplet and photodegradation yields decrease. The laser lifetime of dye molecules is prolonged after being solidified, which also reduces the possible toxicity. After solidification, because the dye molecules are trapped into the skeleton of the solid matrix, thus effectively separates the dye molecules from dimerization, and the quantum yield increases. So the research on solid-state dye lasers has not only theoretical meaning, but also widespread applications.

At present, the fabrication techniques and the resulting hybrid solid-state dye laser materials can be catalogued as 3 kinds: (1) doping laser dyes into polymers and epoxies, (2) post-doping laser dyes into porous glass, and (3) doping laser dyes into organically modified silicate glasses (ORMOSILs) through sol-gel method.

8.2.2 Solid-State Dye Laser Materials Based on Polymers

Because of their high homogeneity, high transmittance, good mechanical properties, low cost, simplicity of fabrication technique, and capability of...