Abstract

The study of the influence of the crystal morphology of laser dye-loaded AlPO₄-5 molecular sieve on the previously reported laser properties, i.e., laser threshold power density, modes of laser emission and lightfastness, requires synthesis procedures resulting in single crystals of varied length-per-width ratios. The suppression of undesired side-phases (AlPO₄-8, VPI-5), as well as the temperature–time field, for the production of pure Rhodamine BE50-loaded crystals with desired uniform morphology by the microwave-heated crystallization method are evaluated and discussed. Uniform plate-like crystals with a thickness of less than 4 µm, for which favorable laser properties can be expected, are obtained only in a small temperature window 150 ± 5 °C with reaction times of about 10 minutes.