Broadly tunable (440-670 nm) solid-state organic laser with disposable capsules

摘要

An innovative concept of thin-film organic solid-state laser is proposed,with diffraction-limited output and a broad tuning range covering the visiblespectrum under UV optical pumping. The laser beam is tunable over 230 nm, from440 to 670 nm, with a 3 nm full width at half maximum typical spectral width.The structure consists of a compact fixed bulk optical cavity, a polymericintracavity etalon for wavelength tuning, as well as five different disposableglass slides coated with a dye-doped polymer film, forming a very simple andlow-cost gain medium. The use of interchangeable/disposable "gain capsules" isan alternative solution to photodegradation issues, since gain chips can bereplaced without realignment of the cavity. The laser lifetime of a single chipin ambient conditions and without encapsulation was extrapolated to be around107 pulses at a microjoule energy-per-pulse level.