Dye laser studies using zig-zag optical cavity

Author

Klimek, Daniel E. ; Mandl, Alexander E. ; Willman, Ben

Author_Institution

Textron Defense Syst., Everett, MA, USA

Volume

30

Issue

6

fYear

1994

fDate

6/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1459

Lastpage

1462

Abstract

We report a substantial advance in dye laser performance using a zig-zag optical cavity. This configuration drastically reduces the effects of intrapulse medium disturbances due to acoustics and thermal lensing on pulse duration, beam quality, and extraction efficiency. Laser outputs of up to 2 J were observed from Coumarin-498 dye pumped by a KrF excimer laser. The dye laser output faithfully replicates the hat-top KrF laser pump pulse over the entire 1.7-μs pulse duration. An intrinsic laser photon conversion efficiency (Photons_in/Photons_absorbed) of 44% was measured. When unstable resonator optics were used, beam qualities of about 2 XDL were measured

Keywords

dye lasers; laser cavity resonators; optical pumping; 1.7 mus; 2 J; 44 percent; Coumarin-498; acoustics; beam quality; dye laser; extraction efficiency; hat-top KrF excimer laser pump pulse; intrapulse medium disturbances; intrinsic laser photon conversion efficiency; pulse duration; thermal lensing; unstable resonator optics; zig-zag optical cavity; Acoustic beams; Acoustic pulses; Laser beams; Laser excitation; Optical beams; Optical pulses; Optical pumping; Optical resonators; Pump lasers; Thermal lensing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.299470

Filename

299470