ORIGINAL ARTICLE Laser Performance of Some Oxazole Laser Dyes in Restricted Matrices Mahmoud A. S. Sakr 1,2 & Sayed A. Abdel Gawad 2 & Maram T. H. Abou Kana 3 & El-Zeiny M. Ebeid 1,2 Received: 2 December 2016 /Accepted: 19 February 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017 Abstract This article reports the optical properties such as absorption profile, molar absorptivity, fluorescence profile and photo-physical parameters such as dipole moment, oscillator strength, fluorescence quantum yields, fluorescence lifetimes, laser performance and fi- nally photostability of 2,5-Bis(5-tert-butyl-benzoxazol-2- yl)thiophene (BBOT),1,4-Bis(5-phenyl-2- oxazolyl)benzene (POPOB), 5-diphenyel-oxazole (PPO) laser dyes in different restricted hosts. (BBOT), (POPOB) and (PPO) are embedded in transparent silica-based nanoporous sol-gel glass and copolymer matrix of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and 2- hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). The absorption and fluorescence properties of these laser dyes in sol- gel glass matrices are compared with their respective properties in copolymer host. In case of sol-gel matrix, all dyes had higher quantum yields as well as lasing wavelength maxima. The laser performances as well as the photostability of these laser dyes in sol-gel glass displayed senior behavior compared with (MMA/ HEMA) copolymer samples upon using nitrogen laser (337.1 nm) as pumping energy. Keywords Oxazole laser dyes . Restricted media . Silica based sol-gel matrix . Copolymer matrix . Photo-physical parameters . Laser performance and photostability Introduction Recently, a lot of work is devoted to implement laser dyes in solid-state as the practical alternative to the counterpart liquid dye lasers due to their compactness, low cost of fabrication, ease and safety in handling and operation. Also, to avoid lack of toxicity, flammability, flow fluctuations, and solvent evap- oration problems [1–3]. Several solid-state dye lasers (SSDL) restricted matrices have been widely reported [4–15]. They played an important role in urology, cardiology and dermatol- ogy. Also, coronary laser thrombolysis, require easily han- dling of compactness solid-state dye laser. Other applications such as remote sensing of atmospheric contaminants devices and underwater communications require the laser to work in light solid form [16]. An ideal host matrix should possess thermal and mechanical stability and time durability. It should enjoy good optical transparency in absorption and emission region of the dopant dye. It should not have chemical and photo-physical interaction with the dye. Avnir and his coworkers in 1984 was the first team who illustrated incorporating a dye in a gel [17]. The effect of drying control chemical additives (DCCA) on the optical and photo-physical properties of laser dye-doped sol–gel and modified silicates (ormosils) has been reported [ 18]. Moreover, DCCA can control the hydrolysis and the conden- sation rate that significantly influences the dye molecule in sol–gel matrix [19]. Modified silica matrices would be good hosts for these dyes due to their chemical inertness, transpar- ency and the possibility to disperse the dye at molecular level [20, 21]. Concurrently, the chemical structures of polymeric * Maram T. H. Abou Kana mabou202@hotmail.com * El-Zeiny M. Ebeid drzeiny@yahoo.com 1 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt 2 Misr University for Science and Technology (MUST), 6th of October City, Egypt 3 Laser science and interactions department, National Institute of Laser Enhanced Science (NILES), Cairo University, P.O. Box 12613, Giza, Egypt J Fluoresc DOI 10.1007/s10895-017-2058-6