A simple rotating system to avoid early degradation of solid-state dye lasers

A practical device is described, which implements a scanning scheme by which a solid-state dye laser sample, tranversely pumped, is rotated to a new position every few shots, thereby avoiding early degradation. Two different dyes are tested; the proton-transfer dye 5(6)-allyloxycarbonyl-2-(5'-fluoro-2'-hydroxyphenyl) benzimidazole co-polymerized with methyl methacrylate and Rhodamine 6G dissolved in a co-polymer 1:1 by volume of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and methyl methacrylate. Pumping was by means of a N₂ laser at 337 nm using full laser output. It is demonstrated that laser power falls by less than 70% after 5500 shots at a repetition rate of 2 Hz for the proton-transfer dye and by less than 6% after 150000 shots at 10 Hz for Rhodamine 6G.