Efficient single mode operation of a CW ring dye laser with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

Abstract

Stable single mode operation of a ring dye laser is obtained with the combination of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), three plate birefringent filter, a single thin etalon and a unidirectional diode. The MZI eliminates the fractional insertion loss due to beam walk-off and distortion which an intracavity etalon must introduce in order to select single frequency operation. We experimentally demonstrate the low insertion loss, single mode stability and frequency tuning of a ring dye laser using a specially designed, compact MZI. Finally, we propose MZIs with no coatings, which should permit extremely low loss broadband operation.