Solid lasers tunable in the visible range

A new type of solid state lasers tunable in the visible range has been developed recently. Incorporation of perylimide and pyrromethene dyes into glasses prepared by the sol gel method allows to design new types of visible, stable solid lasers. These can be prepared either in the form of slabs or rods or as waveguiding active media deposited on glass or polymer supports. The bulk lasers are prepared by two methods: 1. By one phase procedure by preparation of dye-ORMOSIL samples including the photostable laser dyes. 2. By incorporation of the laser photostable dyes into preprepared porous glasses by the sol gel method followed by polymerization in situ in the glass. We summarize here the laser properties obtained by different methods and when possible compare the performance of the solid laser with the solutions of corresponding laser dyes.