Dye photodestruction in a solid-state dye laser with a polymeric gain medium

The process of dye photodestruction in a solid-state dye laser is studied, and implemented is a polymeric gain medium doped with a strongly concentrated dye. The behavior of the conversion efficiency in the polymeric gain medium pumped with different laser-pulse repetition rates and the process of dye photobleaching are analyzed. The contribution of the heating of the host material into the dye molecules' deactivation is discussed. The negative effect of high dye concentration on the dye stability under a high pump repetition rate is reported and analyzed for the first time to my knowledge. A comparison of the present results with recently published data demonstrates the major role of photodestruction, rather than direct thermodestruction, in the dye stability of the solid-state gain medium. The role of additives with low molecular weights in the polymeric matrix, for increasing the stability of the gain material, is discussed. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.