Enhanced backscattering from organic laser gain media bounded with rough gold films

The enhanced backscattering from organic laser gain media that are bounded with one-dimensional (1-D) and two-dimensional (2-D) rough metal films was investigated. We prepared several organic optical gain materials by doping laser-active dyes in matrices of acrylic polymers. These materials produced efficient and broadband fluorescence emission in the visible wavelengths d uring the pumping of a pulsed YAG or cw argon laser. These gain materials w ere sliced and coupled with I-D or 2-D randomly rough gold films with large slopes. An experimental investigation was carried out with a He-Ne laser a s the scattering source and the optical gain provided by a ew argon laser. The enhanced backscattering and the satellite peaks located about the enhan ced-backscattering peak were obviously amplified, with their widths narrowe d. These experimental results agree well with previous theoretical predicti ons. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.