Tunable subnanosecond pulse generation in a ring dye laser bidirectionally pumped by overlapped nanosecond pulses

Abstract

We report an original approach for tunable subnanosecond pulse (200 - 500 ps) generation in a ring dye laser. It is based on limitation of generation to a single `spike' from the starting transient process using for excitation a quasi- rectangular pulse with duration less or comparable with the time interval between the spikes. The pumping pulse (3 - 7 ns) is formed both by electrooptical division of a standard nanosecond (15 - 50 ns) pulse emitted by a Q-modulated laser in an original scheme and by overlapping of the obtained partial pulses which are fed bi-directionally into the active medium of the ring laser.