A solid-state dye laser (SSDL) is a solid-state lasers in which the gain medium is a laser dye-doped organic matrix such as poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), rather than a liquid solution of the dye. These lasers are also referred to as solid-state organic lasers and solid-state dye-doped polymer lasers.

SSDLs were introduced in 1967 by Soffer and McFarland. ^[2]

Organic gain media

In the 1990s, new forms of improved PMMA, such as modified PMMA, with high optical quality characteristics were introduced. ^[3] Gain media research for SSDL has been rather active in the 21st century, and various new dye-doped solid-state organic matrices have been discovered. ^[4] Notable among these new gain media are organic-inorganic dye-doped polymer-nanoparticle composites. ^{[5] [6] [7]} An additional form of organic-inorganic dye-doped solid-state laser gain media are the ORMOSILs. ^{[7] [8]}

High performance solid-state dye laser oscillators

This improved gain medium was central to the demonstration of the first tunable narrow-linewidth solid-state dye laser oscillators, by Duarte, ^[8] which were later optimized to deliver pulse emission in the kW regime in nearly diffraction limited beams with single-longitudinal-mode laser linewidths of ${\displaystyle \Delta \nu }$ ≈ 350 MHz (or ${\displaystyle \Delta \lambda }$ ≈ 0.0004 nm, at a laser wavelength of 590 nm). ^[9] These tunable laser oscillators use multiple-prism grating architectures ^[9] yielding very high intracavity dispersions that can be nicely quantified using the multiple-prism grating equations. ^[10]

Distributed feedback and waveguide solid-state dye lasers

Additional developments in solid-state dye lasers were demonstrated with the introduction of distributed feedback laser designs in 1999 ^{[11] [12]} and distributed feedback waveguides in 2002. ^[13]

See also

• Laser linewidth
• Organic laser
• Organic photonics
• Tunable laser
• Multiple-prism grating laser oscillator

References