Passive mode locking of a continuous wave dye laser operating in the blue-green spectral region

Abstract

The passive mode locking of a continuous wave dye laser operating in the blue-green spectral region is reported for the first time. In a simple linear configuration with no optimization of the intracavity dispersion, coumarin 102, excited by the ultraviolet lines of an argon ion laser, has been mode locked using 3,3′-diethyl oxacarbocyanine iodide over the spectral range 487–508 nm, yielding pulses as short as 580 fs duration at 498 nm.