Abstract

The emission properties of optically pumped laser dyes in the presence of scatterers exhibit spectral and temporal properties characteristic of a multimode laser oscillator.^1,2 This behavior has been observed in liquid, gel, and solid media, and a number of studies have been carried out to characterize the emission.^3,4 Linear input-output characteristics with a well-defined threshold and with linewidths as narrow as 4 nm at high pump intensities have been measured in these composite systems. When these materials are pumped with 80-ps Q-switched mode-locked pulses, the emission is found to have a temporal response of ~100 ps. Recently, experiments carried out in fibers comprosed of important textile materials such as nylon indicate that they too exhibit laser-like behavior.

© 1995 Optical Society of America