Laser behavior and photostability characteristics of organic dye doped silicate gel materials

The solgel process is a solution synthesis technique which provides a low temperature chemical route for the preparation of rigid transparent matrix materials. Luminescent organic dye molecules have been incorporated via the solgel method into organically modified silicate (ORMOSIL) polymer host matrices. Optical gain, laser oscillation, and photostability of rhodamine and coumarin dyes doped into ORMOSIL gels are reported. The gel laser materials exhibit peak gain values of 40 cm(-1) and show improved photostability with respect to comparable polymeric host materials.