High energy and tunable picosecond laser pulses at 1 kHz: synchronously pumping a dye laser with a mode-locked, Q-switched and cavity dumped Nd:YAG laser system

Abstract

Efficient operation of a mode-locked, Q-switched and cavity dumped YAG laser and a synchronously pumped dye laser is described. Stable operation is observed up to repetition rates of 1.3 kHz. Introduction of the cavity dumping optics into the YAG oscillator results in only a modest decrease in the energy of the output pulse train, the operation of the dye laser is unaffected. At a 1.0 kHz repitition rate, cavity dumping the YAG oscillator immediately following cavity dumping the dye laser at the maximum of its gain results in a single pulse energies in excess of 0.6 mJ. Efficient second harmonic generation using CD ∗A produces pulse energies of 0.25 mJ (±5% stability) with a pulse width of 80 ps. In addition, the second harmonic of the cavity dumped YAG can be used to amplify the output of the dye laser. Amplification to 20 μJ/pulse is observed for input energies ranging from 0.1 μJ/ pulse to 10 μJ/pulse.