Recovery of photodegraded rhodamine 6g in ester-containing polymer matrices

Self-healing, rhodamine 6g, dye-doped polymers are reported. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) photodegrades after repeated exposure to 532 nm laser light at 10 Hz. Recovery of the ASE signal is observed in dye-doped thermoplastic polyurethane and glycol-modified poly(ethylene terephthalate); both polymers contain repeating ester groups in their backbone. The polymer ester groups are hypothesized to mediate the full recovery of rhodamine 6g from a photodegraded state. A small amount of ASE recovery after photodegradation is observed in dye-doped poly(vinyl alcohol), >98% hydrolyzed, where conversion of rhodamine 6g from a long-lived dark state contributes to the majority of the increased ASE signal in poly(vinyl alcohol) while small amounts of recovery from interactions with residual acetate groups are also possible. Rhodamine 6g molecules are photodegraded by a laser source. The rhodamine 6g molecules are observed to fully recover back to their pristine state when they are doped in polymers that contain repeating ester groups.