Lasing properties of active medium based on sulforhodamine 101 incorporated into commercial polyurethane compound

The lasing properties of polymer matrices based on commercial polyurethane compound activated by sulforhodamine 101 dye are studied. Lasing with an efficiency of 26 % and pulse energy of 76 mJ is obtained using microsecond transverse pumping at a wavelength of 587 nm. The service life (time of operation to a decrease in the output energy by 50 % upon excitation by 0.3 J cm^-2 pulses) amounts to 2500 pulses. A particular attention is given to the bichromatic lasing spectra of the samples tested. Based on the experimental data a model explaining the two-band emission spectrum is proposed and discussed.