Does anyone here know if any of the organic dyes can be optically pumped to lasing with a mercury vapor light of sufficient power?

(From: Don Klipstein ([email protected]).) Organic dye lasers tend to require much higher degree of pumping than a mercury arc can provide. This is due to the short lifetime of the desired excited state of organic dye molecules (typically around a nanosecond or a few nanoseconds). You have to have a light intense enough to achieve the necessary population inversion in about this amount of time.

(Since these lasers are usually 4-level lasers, you don't actually have to excite a majority of all dye molecules within a nanosecond. However, what you have to do is still a tall order.) In fact, plain ordinary xenon flash tubes often have difficulty achieving the necessary light intensity. You may need extra-intense flash tubes with somewhat unusual circuitry, voltages, etc. to get a dye laser working.

For some xenon flash tube stuff including stuff that may help getting a dye laser to lase, try these web pages of mine: • Xenon Flash Design Guidelines (including a bit of info for laser pumping) • ... more.

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