Ultraviolet organic liquid lasers

A flashlamp-excited organic liquid laser system capable of stimulated emission down to 340 nm in the ultraviolet has been developed. The flashlamp has a rise time of 50 ns and energy capacity of 20 joules or more. There are several efficient laser compounds that emit below 400 nm, and the most promising appears to be the p-terphenyl laser, which emits at 341 nm and is capable of running in the superradiant mode. There are several interesting facets still unexplained in ultraviolet lasers. The possibility of singlet to triplet intersystem crossings in substances generally accepted as having unity fluorescence quantum efficiency has been encountered.