Stable Doped Hybrid Sol-Gel Materials for Solid-State Dye Laser

Laser effects have been obtained with dye-doped hybrid xerogel samples prepared several years ago and stored in different “classical ” conditions. Firstly, using the same configuration of the laser cavity as was used 4 -5 years ago, we have obtained almost identical laser performances, and slope conversion efficiencies were measured up to 80% and operational lifetimes, with 1-mJ initial output energy and 10-Hz repetition rate of several hundred thousand pulses obtained. Secondly, we have introduced the new pyrromethene 605 dye into a hybrid xerogel matrix and obtained good laser performances similar to the rest of the pyrromethene family.