Operation of rhodamine 6g dye laser in water solution

The ethanolic solution of Rhodamine 6G is used for dye lasers in the atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) system. However, the water solution is preferable from the standpoint of easy treatment and safety. In this paper, we systematically investigated the laser efficiency of a Rhodamine 6G dye laser pumped by a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser, for various water-based solutions with surface-active agents and alcohols. By adding an appropriate amount of surface-active agent (Triton X or Emulgen) or alcohol (ethanol or propanol), we obtained almost the same level of laser efficiency as in the pure ethanolic solution. The improvement in the laser efficiency with these additives was attained by the deaggregation of nonradiative dimers. It was also confirmed that the water-based solution showed better performance against thermal distortion than the ethanolic solution, and was suitable for copper vapor laser (CVL) pumping.