Thin-film energy-transfer dye lasers in spectral region of near ultraviolet to violet

The development of the thin-film waveguide dye lasers has created extensive applications in laser technology and fiber optics. This paper reports the laser properties of two types of thin-film energy-transfer dye lasers (thin-film ETDL). One is the mixture-type doped with a donor-acceptor dye pair in the polymer thin-film waveguide, which operates largely by nonradiative resonance transfer; the other is two-layer type with the active core (layer of acceptor dye) and clad (layer of donor dye), which operates only by radiative transfer. These ETDLs are pumped by an N₂ laser and operate efficiently as practical compact laser sources in the spectral region of near ultraviolet to violet. Furthermore, the measurement of the energy transfer rate constants in these ETDLs is also presented.