Versatile high-power single-longitudinal-mode pulsed dye laser

Abstract

A versatile high-spectral-energy density dye laser suitable for lidar applications and high-resolution spectroscopy is reported. The dye laser includes an oscillator and preamplifier and two amplifier stages. With transverse pumping by the second harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser, an efficiency of 55% was achieved at 589 nm, providing 165 mJ in a single-longitudinal mode. Second harmonic generation results in a dye laser-to-UV conversion efficiency of 33%. Optimization of dye solutions covering the 565-880-nm range is presented. The laser was also pumped with a ruby laser, producing an output energy of 400 mJ at 770 nm.