HEAT DISSIPATION STUDY OF POLYMERIC DYE LASER MATERIALS BY USING PHOTOTHERMAL DEFLECTION SPECTROSCOPY

L. SCAFFARDI; R. DUCHOWICZ; A. COSTELA; I. GARCÍA MORENO; R. SASTRE ; A. ACUÑA

OPTICAL ENGINEERING

SPIE-SOC PHOTOPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS

Año: 2001 vol. 4419 p. 98 - 101

0091-3286

The main shortcoming of the use of synthetic polymers as host in the development of dye laser materials is their low laserdamage threshold and the photodegradation of the dye. The more important process that limit the lifetime of the material should be a photochemical mechanism although photothermal processes produce some contributions. In this work, we have investigated the thermal response of the material when different quantities of energy are loaded during the pump process. Photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PTDS) was used in the investigation. The characteristics of the photothermal signal were analyzed as a function ofthe laser repetition rate. This study is related with the decay ofthe laser output energy with the pump rate due to photodegradation observed previously in similar samples. Results show that the photothermal signal follows a linear dependence with the pump rate. The thermal effects increase strongly when the pump rate is larger than 1 Hz. This fact affects the mobility of the dye molecules and reactive species in the matrix, increasing the possibility of chemical degradation. Results of a theoretical simulation of the deflection signal using a optical dense materials model is included.