Anionic and Zwitterionic Photophysical Effects in Some Pyridinium Oxazole Laser Dyes

Abstract

Kauffman and Bentley [Laser Chem. 8, 49-59 (1988)] have reported increased laser output by changing the anion of certain pyridinium oxazole dyes from the tosylate to the mesylate salt. Likewise, zwitterion variants of these dyes are also reported to have a significantly improved laser output. We find anion changes to be modest and, with one exception, all zwitterions tested were no better or not as good as the tosylate salt with respect to lasing output. However, both the mesylate salt and the zwitterion variants have greatly improved lifetimes if there is no fluorine auxochrome in the basic dye. These authors also report observation of bifurcated lasing output curves. We see no such phenomena.