Fritz Peter Schäfer (15 January 1931 – 25 April 2011) was a German physicist, born in Hersfeld, Hesse-Nassau. He is the co-inventor of the

organic dye laser Organic lasers use an organic (carbon based) material as the gain medium. The first organic laser was the liquid dye laser. These lasers use laser dye solutions as their gain media. Organic lasers are inherently tunable and when configured as ...

. His book, ''Dye Lasers'', is considered a classic in the field of tunable lasers. In this book the chapter written by Schäfer gives an ample and insightful exposition on organic laser dye molecules in addition to a description on the physics of telescopic, and multiple-prism, tunable narrow-linewidth laser oscillators. In their original experiment Schäfer and colleagues employed a ruby laser to optically excite various infrared organic dyes. These dyes emitted laser radiation in the 731-835 nm range. Schäfer ''et al.'' achieved high power outputs at a bandwidth of approximately 10 nm. Schäfer also experimented with laser dyes in the vapor phase under optical excitation. In addition to his pioneering work on the dye laser, Schäfer also made important contributions to femtosecond lasers and the application of these lasers in plasma physics. Schäfer was Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen.

References

1931 births 2011 deaths People from Bad Hersfeld People from Hesse-Nassau 20th-century German physicists Experimental physicists Laser researchers Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Max Planck Institute directors {{germany-physicist-stub