title: Solid state dye lasers: rhodamines in silica-zirconia materials.
abstract: Silica-zirconia materials as well as silica-zirconia ormosils prepared by the sol-gel technique were doped with the laser dyes Rhodamine B and Rhodamine 6G and used as solid state dye lasers. The photostability and efficiency of the solid state laser samples were measured in a transverse pumping configuration by either a nitrogen laser or the second harmonic of a Nd-YAG laser. Under the excitation of a nitrogen laser the photostability of Rhodamine B in silica-zirconia materials was low and decreased with a growing amount of zirconia. The photophysical properties of the incorporated dyes were studied by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. The fluorescence lifetimes of both dyes increased when the matrix was modified by organic compounds Furthermore, the threshold energy of Rhodamine 6G in two ormosils containing 3 and 50% methylsilica was measured. The results revealed that the threshold energy was lower for the matrix with a higher amount of ormosil while the slope efficiency was higher in the matrix containing 30% ormosil.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universitat des Saarlandes, Im Stadtwald, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schultheiss
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yariv
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reisfeld
authors.forename: Hans Dieter
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Breuer
mesh_terms: D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D004355:Drug Stability; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D007834:Lasers; D010777:Photochemistry; D012235:Rhodamines / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D013997:Time Factors; D015040:Zirconium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D012235:Rhodamines; C026188:rhodamine 6G; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D015040:Zirconium; C029773:rhodamine B