Spectroscopic Applications of Integrated Tunable Solid-State Dye Laser

A novel type of tunable laser is developed that integrates dye-doped plastics laser waveguides with a distributed feedback structure. The waveguide matrix is dye doped poly-hydroxyethylmethacrylate:methylmethacrylate, and a single-mode waveguide is achieved by refractive index control. The wavelength coverage is over 560-1100 nm using a frequency doubled Nd:YAG microchip laser. The miniaturizing of the optical-pumped solid-state dye laser extended the lifetime to more than million shots and decreased the required laser threshold energy to less than 1 $mUJ. Novel type spectroscopic applications using the multiple wavelength laser array chip are also proposed and demonstrated.