PHOTOPHYSICAL AND LASING PROPERTIES OF A NEW ESTER DERIVATIVE OF RHODAMINE 6G

Absorption and fluorescence spectra, fluorescence decay curves and las er emission characteristics of a newly synthesized dye belonging to th e rhodamine family, dissolved in several aliphatic monoalcohols and in water/ethanol mixtures, have been obtained. The new dye incorporates the chromophoric group of rhodamine 6G, but with the ethyl substituent in the ester group of this molecule replaced by the p-ethoxycarbonylb enzyl group, and can be considered as a molecular model for a previous ly described rhodamine dye with a polymerizable double bond that has d emonstrated to lase efficiently with good photostability in solid poly meric matrices. The results obtained indicate that the modifications i n the dye molecule scarcely affect the photophysics of the rhodamine c hromophore. The new rhodamine dye has lasing properties that correlate well with its photophysical characteristics. Laser emission in water solution with efficiencies as high as 10.5% has been obtained.