Effect of quenching of molecular triplet states in organic dye lasers

The effect of quenching of metastable triplet states upon the efficiency of organic dye lasers is considered in detail by solving the coupled differential equations describing the laser process. It is shown that specific quenching agents for excited triplet states can 1) cause a dramatic increase in the laser efficiency, 2) negate the previous requirements of very fast pumping sources, and 3) permit the use of dyes with relatively small fluorescence quantum yields. The addition of quenching agents that quench both singlet and triplet states (such as molecular oxygen) generally improves the efficiency although not as dramatically. Steady-state solutions were developed that lead to analytical expressions for the laser efficiency and the concentrations of the excited states as a function of time.