Feasibility of tbe solar-pumped fullerene-oxygen-iodine laser (sun-light FOIL)

The feasibility of the optically pumped (in particular, solar-pumped) fulle rene-oxygen-iodine laser (FOIL) is considered. The singlet oxygen is assume d to be formed through the interaction of molecular oxygen with a mixture o f (both lower and higher) fullerenes in a photogenerated triplet metastable state. The estimates based on a photokinetic model show that the solar-pum ped FOIL efficiency can reach several tens of percent. The singlet-oxygen y ield resulting from the interaction of optical pumping radiation with fulle renes in solutions is studied both theoretically and experimentally. As the optical pumping, we used laser radiation at 532 nm and broad-band emission of a lamp with a solarlike spectrum. (C) 2001 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".