Short Tunable Pulses from a Nitrogen-laser-pumped Dye Laser

Abstract

Part of the output of a N2-laser, giving 180 kW in 4 ns, was used to pump a dye laser of the Hänsch type, having 0.01 nm bandwidth. The dye laser pulse-shape was found to depend strongly on cavity-round-trip modulation, varying with pumping power and cavity length. By varying the cavity length, pulse widths in the range 1 to 2.5 ns were obtained with peak powers ranging from 0.1 to 1 kW. Increased power and pulse reshaping could be obtained in an amplifier pumped by the remaining output of the N2-laser. Further, some alternative schemes for the generation of short tunable, narrow bandwidth, dye laser pulses are proposed.