Etude des phénomènes de photodégradation et de polarisation dans les lasers organiques solides à cavité verticale externe

Although organic solid-state dye lasers can provide wavelenght tunability in the whole visible spectrum and offers perpectives of low-cost compact lasers, they are still limited by several drawbacks, especially photodegradation. The geometry of a Vertical External Cavity Surface-emitting Organic Laser (VECSOL) enables organic lasers to reach high energies, excellent conversion efficiences and good beam quality, it also enables an external control on many parameters, a feature that we have udes here to study the photodegradation phenomenon as well as some polarization properties of organic solid-state lasers. In the first part of this thesis, we studied the lifetime of the laser upon varying several parameters (pump pulsewidth, repetition rate, output coupling, ...) and we found that the intracavity laser intensity, independently of the pump intensity, had a major on photodegradation rate. Moreover, we observed that the profile of the laser beam was also degrading with time : while it is Gaussian in the beginning it gradually shifts to an annular shape. In the second part, we investigated the polarization properties of VECSOLs, with a special emphasis on fluorescence properties of some typical dyes used in lasers. The crucial role played by resonant nonradiative energy transfers between dye molecules (HOMO-FRET) is evidenced and enables explaining the observed fluorescence depolarization, compared to the expected limiting fluorescence anisotropy. Energy transfers happen to play a negligible role above laser threshold, as the organic laser beam is shown to be linearly polarized in a wide range of experimental conditions when excitation occurs in the first singlet state.Les lasers organiques solides disposent d’atouts considérables par rapport aux autres types de laser : l’accordabilité en longueur d’onde dans le visible et la simplicité de fabrication. Ils restent néanmoins à la marge d’une commercialisation et le phénomène de photodégradation en est la principale cause. Le VECSOL pour Vertical External Cavity Surface-emitting Organic Laser est une structure de laser particulièrement bien adaptée pour l’étudier car elle permet un contrôle très simple de plusieurs paramètres pouvant entrer en jeu dans le phénomène de photodégradation. Ainsi lors de cette thèse, où nous avons cherché à comprendre quels sont les facteurs ayant une influence sur la durée de vie des lasers, l’intensité intracavité s’est par exemple révélée être un élément crucial : plus elle est grande, plus la durée du laser est grande. Par ailleurs, un suivi en temps réel de la forme du faisceau laser a montré que celle-ci, gaussienne au départ, devenait annulaire avant de s’éteindre traduisant la « mort » progressive des molécules sollicitées pendant le pompage.Une seconde partie de la thèse concerne la polarisation de la fluorescence des molécules organiques utilisées en laser solide. Nous avons montré que la concentration en colorant influençait grandement la dépolarisation de l’émission spontanée. Enfin, en fonctionnement laser, le faisceau reste polarisé rectilignement (comme la pompe) quel que soit la concentration en colorant

Broadly tunable (440-670 nm) solid-state organic laser with disposable capsules

An innovative concept of thin-film organic solid-state laser is proposed, with diffraction-limited output and a broad tuning range covering the visible spectrum under UV optical pumping. The laser beam is tunable over 230 nm, from 440 to 670 nm, with a 3 nm full width at half maximum typical spectral width. The structure consists of a compact fixed bulk optical cavity, a polymeric intracavity etalon for wavelength tuning, as well as five different disposable glass slides coated with a dye-doped polymer film, forming a very simple and low-cost gain medium. The use of interchangeable/disposable "gain capsules" is an alternative solution to photodegradation issues, since gain chips can be replaced without realignment of the cavity. The laser lifetime of a single chip in ambient conditions and without encapsulation was extrapolated to be around 107 pulses at a microjoule energy-per-pulse level

Drying colloidal systems: laboratory models for a wide range of applications

The drying of complex fluids provides a powerful insight into phenomena that take place on time and length scales not normally accessible. An important feature of complex fluids, colloidal dispersions and polymer solutions is their high sensitivity to weak external actions. Thus, the drying of complex fluids involves a large number of physical and chemical processes. The scope of this review is the capacity to tune such systems to reproduce and explore specific properties in a physics laboratory. A wide variety of systems are presented, ranging from functional coatings, food science, cosmetology, medical diagnostics and forensics to geophysics and art

Photodegradation and polarization properties of vertical external surface-emitting organic laser

Les lasers organiques solides disposent d’atouts considérables par rapport aux autres types de laser : l’accordabilité en longueur d’onde dans le visible et la simplicité de fabrication. Ils restent néanmoins à la marge d’une commercialisation et le phénomène de photodégradation en est la principale cause. Le VECSOL pour Vertical External Cavity Surface-emitting Organic Laser est une structure de laser particulièrement bien adaptée pour l’étudier car elle permet un contrôle très simple de plusieurs paramètres pouvant entrer en jeu dans le phénomène de photodégradation. Ainsi lors de cette thèse, où nous avons cherché à comprendre quels sont les facteurs ayant une influence sur la durée de vie des lasers, l’intensité intracavité s’est par exemple révélée être un élément crucial : plus elle est grande, plus la durée du laser est grande. Par ailleurs, un suivi en temps réel de la forme du faisceau laser a montré que celle-ci, gaussienne au départ, devenait annulaire avant de s’éteindre traduisant la « mort » progressive des molécules sollicitées pendant le pompage.Une seconde partie de la thèse concerne la polarisation de la fluorescence des molécules organiques utilisées en laser solide. Nous avons montré que la concentration en colorant influençait grandement la dépolarisation de l’émission spontanée. Enfin, en fonctionnement laser, le faisceau reste polarisé rectilignement (comme la pompe) quel que soit la concentration en colorant.Although organic solid-state dye lasers can provide wavelenght tunability in the whole visible spectrum and offers perpectives of low-cost compact lasers, they are still limited by several drawbacks, especially photodegradation. The geometry of a Vertical External Cavity Surface-emitting Organic Laser (VECSOL) enables organic lasers to reach high energies, excellent conversion efficiences and good beam quality, it also enables an external control on many parameters, a feature that we have udes here to study the photodegradation phenomenon as well as some polarization properties of organic solid-state lasers. In the first part of this thesis, we studied the lifetime of the laser upon varying several parameters (pump pulsewidth, repetition rate, output coupling, ...) and we found that the intracavity laser intensity, independently of the pump intensity, had a major on photodegradation rate. Moreover, we observed that the profile of the laser beam was also degrading with time : while it is Gaussian in the beginning it gradually shifts to an annular shape. In the second part, we investigated the polarization properties of VECSOLs, with a special emphasis on fluorescence properties of some typical dyes used in lasers. The crucial role played by resonant nonradiative energy transfers between dye molecules (HOMO-FRET) is evidenced and enables explaining the observed fluorescence depolarization, compared to the expected limiting fluorescence anisotropy. Energy transfers happen to play a negligible role above laser threshold, as the organic laser beam is shown to be linearly polarized in a wide range of experimental conditions when excitation occurs in the first singlet state

Effets thermiques dans les lasers solides organiques en film mince

International audienceWith the recent development of organic solid-state lasers (OSSLs) architectures enabling power scaling and progresses towards continuous-wave operation, the question of thermal effects now arises in OSSLs. In this paper, a Rhodamine 640-PMMA based vertical external cavity surface emitting organic laser is investigated. A thermal microscope is used to record temperature maps at the organic thin film surface during laser action; those maps are compared with time-resolved finite element thermal simulations. The measured and simulated peak temperature rises are in good accordance and are shown to remain below 10 K in standard operating conditions, showing a negligible impact on performance. The validated model is used to investigate typical OSSL structures from the literature, in a virtual high average power regime, and up to the CW regime. It is shown that whenever true CW organic lasing will be realized, significant thermal effects will have to be considered and properly managed