Tunable subnanosecond pulses from short cavity dye laser systems pumped with a nitrogen-TEA laser

Abstract

The performance of a laser system consisting of piezoelectrically tunable short cavity dye lasers pumped with a nitrogen-TEA laser is presented. The design and construction details of the nitrogen laser are given, and its pulse energy and pulse duration under various operating conditions are presented. Typically, UV pulses (337 nm) from the N2 laser had energies of 80 μJ and durations of 600 ps. The shortest dye laser pulses measured were about 90 ps at 600 nm.