Using any fluorescent material to build a laser?

[Minousoft]

Is it possible to use any fluorescent material to build a laser? I have some materials which create large amounts of green light when ultraviolet light is applied - I'm thinking that if I could find a very powerful UV strobe and some precision optics, I could build a laser.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Grix]

Nah, the flourescence will not be a single wavelength. At least I think so.

 

[Minousoft]

But then wouldn't it be a multi-wavelength laser? I'm not sure.

 

[dr-ebert]

No, because laser light is coherent. Just being fluorescent isn't enough. It's essentially just the first of several steps.

 

[Minousoft]

Thanks for clarifying that. I knew it was something...

 

[pseudolobster]

Dye lasers operate on a similar principle... I'm not sure how hard it would be to make one, but here's some reading material for you: Dye laser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[GooeyGus]

Many materials that are fluorescent will also lase.

The problem is that they also need to be optically clear for lasing to happen. Most fluorescent dyes will lase if they are in a solvent solution and dont have any additives which will hinder lasing.

every solid state laser works on this principle as well. Yag fluoresces under 808nm light, then mirrors are added and since the yag has a clear optical path through it, you get lasing.

You can even use methanol and a highlighter and put it in a clear vessel, blast it with high energy pulses of UV light and it will lase on its own, with no mirrors or anything.

Fluorescence is never coherent, it is the light created by electrons jumping to lower energy states. BUT if you use a mirror to make a phonton cause those electrons to drop an energy state, the electron produces a photon exactly the same as the one that hit it, making coherent light.

It's like saying "an argon laser isn't a laser because the plasma glow isn't coherent". It is the glowing itself that allows the lasing to happen

SO to answer your question, YES, but not unless conditions are right. :evil:

 

[pullbangdead]

Any material that can lase with optical pumping will fluoresce, but not all materials that can fluoresce will lase.

Make sense?

 

[Laser_Ben]

Technically, the YAG or YVO4 in a DPSS laser is fluorescent when lasing. Here is an amazing picture showing the effect.



The YAG rod at the top left is making a red/orange color as it is lasing. This is with an IR filter blocking out anything over 700nm.

A dye laser uses this principal, so does a YAG laser, or dye doped materials.