Bleaching and diffusion dynamics in optofluidic dye lasers

We have investigated the bleaching dynamics that occur in optofluidic dyelasers where the liquid laser dye in a microfluidic channel is locally bleacheddue to optical pumping. We find that for microfluidic devices, the dyebleaching may be compensated through diffusion of dye molecules alone. Byrelying on diffusion rather than convection to generate the necessary dyereplenishment, our observation potentially allows for a significantsimplification of optofluidic dye laser device layouts, omitting the need forcumbersome and costly external fluidic handling or on-chip microfluidic pumpingdevices.Comment: 3 pages including 3 figures. Accepted for AP