Material Gain Concentration Quenching in Organic Dye-Doped Polymer Thin Films

TL;DR

This paper develops a theoretical model to account for concentration quenching effects in dye-doped polymer thin films, improving the accuracy of material gain predictions for organic solid-state lasers.

Contribution

It introduces a model that incorporates concentration quenching into material gain calculations for dye-doped polymers, validated with experimental data.

Findings

Concentration quenching significantly affects material gain estimates.

The model reduces overestimation of gain efficiency compared to linear models.

Polycarbonate can be an effective host for the dye PMN.

Abstract

The optimization of material gain in optically pumped dye-doped polymer thin films is an important task in the development of organic solid-state lasers. In this work, we present a theoretical model that accommodates the influence of concentration quenching on material gain and employ it to study the novel dye molecule 2-(4-(bis(4-(tert-butyl)phenyl)amino)benzylidene)malononitrile (PMN) and the well-established dye molecule 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(4-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM) embedded in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Polycarbonate was tested as an alternative host material for PMN. The material gain in these dye-doped polymer thin films was determined by the variable stripe length method. The inclusion of concentration quenching in the material gain expression is able to significantly reduce the overestimation of the gain efficiency inherent to a linear model.