Physical constraints associated with the development of a laser based on electrochemiluminescence

A theoretical study of the possibility of attaining laser action from an electrochemiluminescence system has been undertaken. A simple model has been found that is capable of predicting the width of the excited state creation zone in terms of the peak excited state concentration. This relation reveals that diffraction losses are likely to be catastrophic if the concentration of the excited molecules is made sufficient to ensure that the optical gain of the medium exceeds the losses due to the laser cavity. This imposes an extremely severe physical constraint on the development of a laser based on radical-ion annihilation.