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

TL;DR

This paper introduces a broadly tunable solid-state organic laser with disposable gain capsules, covering 440-670 nm, offering a low-cost, replaceable solution with high durability under ambient conditions.

Contribution

It presents a novel thin-film organic laser design with disposable gain capsules, enabling broad tunability and addressing photodegradation issues effectively.

Findings

Tuning range of 230 nm from 440 to 670 nm.

Laser lifetime extrapolated to 10^7 pulses at microjoule energy.

Low-cost, simple structure with interchangeable gain media.

Abstract

An innovative concept of thin-film organic solid-state laser is proposed, with diffraction-limited output and a broad tuning range covering the visible spectrum under UV optical pumping. The laser beam is tunable over 230 nm, from 440 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 polymeric intracavity etalon for wavelength tuning, as well as five different disposable glass slides coated with a dye-doped polymer film, forming a very simple and low-cost gain medium. The use of interchangeable/disposable "gain capsules" is an alternative solution to photodegradation issues, since gain chips can be replaced without realignment of the cavity. The laser lifetime of a single chip in ambient conditions and without encapsulation was extrapolated to be around 107 pulses at a microjoule energy-per-pulse level.