NEW SOLID GLASS-LASER FOR PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY

A stable tunable solid state laser emitting around 620 nm is made of a composite glass impregnated by photostable perylimide dye. The laser was pumped with copper vapor laser and the output energy obtained was a few mu-Joul per pulse (repetition rate 50 Hz). No significant change in the output power was observed during several hours of operation. Higher output energies are expected. This new laser should be suitable for photodynamic therapy (PDT) and laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) diagnostics in conjunction with hematoporphyrin derivative (HPD) excited at 630 nm.