Abstract

We report the design and experimental demonstration of a cavity-dumped dye oscillator, synchronously pumped by the second, or third, harmonic of a Q-switched mode-locked Nd:YAG laser. By careful attention to correct adjustment of the intracavity dye laser intensity, pulses of 20-ps duration have been reliably obtained. A prism beam expander and grating combination have been used as the tuning element. This results in easy single-adjustment tuning over a full dye gain bandwidth and a nearly transform-limited linewidth of 1 cm⁻¹. By changing dye and using either the second or third harmonic of the pump laser, high-power output is obtainable from 400 to 850 nm. Pulse energies of the order of 20 μJ have been measured at 560 nm with energies of 2 μJ being attainable when pumping with the less intense third harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser.

© 1986 Optical Society of America