Superradiant emission from electron-beam-excited POPOP vapor

Abstract

For the first time superradiant emission from an electron-beam-excited dye vapor has been observed. Temporal and spectral characteristics are described that confirm the presence of stimulated emission. The wavelength integrated net gain of an optimized POPOP dye vapor–buffer gas mixture is found to be 0.17 cm−1 at 1 Torr and 4 atm argon pressures for an absorbed power input of 40 MW into an active volume of 10 cm3. Under these conditions an estimate of the conversion efficiency from electronic energy to coherent light yields 5%. These results suggest that an efficient tunable electronically pumped dye vapor laser system is feasible.