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Letters to Nature

Nature 217, 631-633 (17 February 1968) | doi:10.1038/217631a0; Received 19 January 1968

Stimulated Emission and Laser Action from the Organic Ligand of Gadolinium Chelates

N. FILIPESCU, C. R. HURT & N. MCAVOY

  1. Department of Chemistry, The George Washington University, Washington.
  2. Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, Maryland.
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WE wish to report evidence for stimulated emission and laser characteristics from liquid solutions of gadolinium organic chelates at room temperature. To our knowledge this is the first time that electronic transitions in organic chromophores have performed laser action under direct flash in liquid solution. The stimulated emission is reproducibly obtained at room temperature in conditions in which no fluorescence or phosphorescence is usually detected. With identical pumping energy, the coherent emission from the organic ligand in the Gd chelate is comparable with that obtained from solutions of europium1–3 and terbium4 chelates in which the emitting species is the complexed lanthanide ion.