Dye with a rotating active medium in the form of a polymer matrix containing a dye

An investigation was made of the energy characteristics and operating life of a pulse-periodic laser with a rotating polymer active medium. A deliberate selection of the ratio of the rotation frequency of the active medium to the repetition frequency of the pump pulses eliminated thermooptic distortions and increased the operating life up to 10⁶ pulses. When the average pump power density was ~20 W/cm² and the best dyes were used, the lasing efficiency reached 30% and the tuning range was 100 nm, which represented a considerable improvement over the corresponding characteristics of the widely used rhodamine 6G dye laser.