Yu. Yu. Stoilov

Prospects for vapor-phase dye lasers

This review covers the field of vapor-phase dye lasers (VPDL) with special emphasis on prospects of gas lasers with optical pumping. Some peculiarities of the gaseous active medium and a possibility to control its density near the critical point are discussed. High specific laser energies (∼0.3J/cm−3), low thresholds, and high efficiencies (20–40%) made it possible to construct a powerful tunable VPDL.

Optically excitedP-quaterphenyl vapour laser

We report the observation of laser action at 350 nm in an organic scintillatorp-quaterphenyl (PQT) in the vapour phase. Pure vapours and their mixtures with SF6 and N2 were excited with the fourth harmonic of an Nd laser (266 nm) in transverse pumping geometry. The measured conversion efficiency of the PQT vapour laser was 1% under nonoptimum conditions. Absorption spectrum and vapour density curve are given. Influence of buffer gases on the threshold pump intensity and fluorescence efficiency is reported.