Gain studies of coumarin 307 dye doped polymer laser

Solid state dye doped polymer is an attractive alternative to the conventional liquid dye solution. In this paper the laser characteristics of coumarin 307 (C307) doped polymethyl methacrylate rods modified with dioxane are studied under nitrogen laser excitation in a transverse pumping configuration and the variation of gain of the dye in solid medium for different pumping powers is studied. The photobleaching of dye doped polymer rod is also studied.     

Locking of a flashlamp-pumped dye laser at small injection powers

Experiments have been carried out on the injection-locking of a pulsed dye laser to an argon-laser-pumped CW dye laser of 50 MHz linewidth without longitudinal mode matching. With the inclusion of a Fabry-Perot etalon within the ring laser arrangement of the pulsed laser, the initiation of injection locking and saturation occur at low injection powers.     

A long-pulse xenon ion laser as a pumping source for dye lasers

A simple xenon ion laser that is either sealed or has a gas flow mode is described. The laser delivered long pulses ( 15 μs) of almost 1 kW peak power. It has been used to pump a dye laser employing the same configuration as cw dye lasers. The system is inexpensive and can be mode-locked, enabling it to yield ultrashort pulses comparable in duration to those delivered by cw argon laser-pumped dye lasers but with much higher peak powers.     

Tunable energy transfer distributed feedback dye laser using pyronin B and crystal violet dye mixture

Using pyronin B and crystal violet dye mixture, the characteristics of energy transfer distributed feedback dye laser (ETDFDL) pumped by 532 nm Nd:YAG laser were investigated. The characteristics of donor DFDL and acceptor DFDL as well as the dependence of their pulse widths and output powers on pump power and acceptor concentrations were studied. The output energy of DFDL was measured at the emission peaks of donor and acceptor dyes for different pump powers and acceptor concentrations, and tunability was observed from 570 to 645 nm using prism dye cell arrangement.     

High power CW dye laser emission in the near IR from 685 nm to 965 nm

We report cw dye laser emission covering the entire spectral range from 685 nm to 965 nm by using a krypton laser pumped jet stream dye laser system. Maximum output powers of 1.5 W were obtained at 5 W pump power, which corresponds to a conversion efficiency of about 30%. This is appreciably higher than reported for all dyes for the visible spectral region, including the rhodamines.     

The generation of tunable near IR radiation using a nitrogen laser pumped dye laser

Excitation transfer between the two components of a dye mixture has allowed a near IR dye laser to be pumped by a nitrogen laser. Several dye mixtures were employed to achieve lasing at all wavelengths within the range 6400–7720 Å. The output pulse powers were in excess of 10 kW over most of this range.     

Tunable dye laser configurations

Various configurations for the successful operation of a continuous, tunable dye laser are described. Output powers as high as 100 milliwatts have been obtained using a 1.5 watt argon ion laser at 5145 Å as the optical pump for the dye laser, with a tuning range of from 5640 Å to 6150 Å.     

Enhanced efficiency and extended wavelength range of dye lasers operated with DCM

It is observed that the efficiency of the DCM dye dissolved in ethylene glycol benzyl alcohol can be enhanced if the dye is preheated at a temperature of 150 °C. Peak powers as high as 1.5 W have been achieved with a single-mode ring dye laser at 640 nm when pumped by 9 W (all lines) from an argon-ion laser. The wavelength region has been also extended beyond both ends of the tuning curve compared to a conventionally prepared DCM dye. Received: 3 September 1999 / Revised version: 9 December 1999 / Published online: 23 February 2000     

A high efficiency dye laser tunable from the UV to the IR

A dye laser has been developed as a source of tunable radiation in the wavelength range 3500–3700 Å. A Variety of dyes and dye mixtures have been used to cover this range. Output powers up to 30 kW are obtained with line-widths less than 1.8 Å. A Fabry-Pérot etalon reduces the output linewidth to 0.1 Å and the peak output power by a factor of three. Second harmonic powers in excess of 2 kW have been generated from the output of this laser.     

Simple picosecond dye laser system pumped by a frequency doubled,optically compressed Q-switched mode-locked Nd:YAG laser

Using the frequency doubled output of the 3 ps pulses from a temporally compressed cw Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser, a simple synchronously pumped dye laser was constructed to give frequency tunable operation with short pulses in the 5–10 ps range and peak powers of ～ 15 kW. A circularly scanning streak camera operating in stroboscopic mode was also used to examine pulse formation in the dye laser.     

Laser dye DCM: CW,synchronously pumped,cavity pumped and single-frequency performance

Laser dye DCM exhibits a tuning range of 605 to 725 nm with a lasing efficiency as high as 34% when pumped by the 488 nm line of the argon ion laser, placing it among the most efficient and broadly tunable dyes known. Performance of the dye is characterized for four laser systems: 1) continuous wave, 2) synchronously pumped (SP), 3) cavity dumped synchrompously pumped (SPCD) and 4) single-frequency ring dye laser. Pulse peak powers were as high as 520 W and 2.8 kW for SP and SPCD systems respectively.     

High power cw dye lasers

The dependance of the output power of cw dye lasers on the pump power and the system-and stream parameters is calculated and experimentally tested. It was found that the pump power for a given system is limited to a critical value due to the influence of thermal inhomogeneities. This critical pump power is predominantly dependant on the dye solvent, the flow velocity, the focussing of the pump laser and the stability range of the dye laser system. Possibilities for the reduction of the thermal inhomogeneities are discussed and attainable output powers are calculated.     

An experimental study and theoretical analysis of the mode characteristics of a narrow line-width,pulsed dye laser oscillator at different pump powers

This paper presents an experimental study and theoretical analysis on the effect of pump power on the divergence, pointing, line-width and wavelength stability of a narrow line-width, high repetition rate dye laser oscillator. The dye laser oscillator, based on the hybrid multiple-prism grazing-incidence grating cavity, was pumped by copper vapor laser (CVL). The dye laser mode characteristics were studied at CVL average pump powers of 2, 4 and 8 W. The single pulse dye laser divergence/pointing stability was studied by far-field intensity distributions. The line-width and wavelength stability were studied using a high resolution wave-meter. The experimental results were theoretically analyzed in terms of dye laser mode structure drift induced by beam pointing instability, beam divergence and thermally induced optical path length fluctuation. A comprehensive theoretical treatment on pointing stability of dye laser beam and its influence in the dye laser wavelength stability is presented. The theoretical and experimental trends were found to be in good agreement.     

Microfluidic laser embedded in glass by three-dimensional femtosecond laser microprocessing

Microfluidic dye lasers three-dimensionally embedded in glass have been fabricated for what is believed to be the first time by integrating micro-optical and microfluidic components by use of a femtosecond laser. By pumping the microfluidic laser, in which the microfluidic chamber was filled with the laser dye Rhodamine 6G dissolved in ethanol, with a frequency-doubled Nd:yttrium aluminum garnet laser, lasing action was confirmed by analysis of the emission spectra at different pump powers. In addition, by arranging two microfluidic chambers serially in the glass, we built a microfluidic twin laser that produces an array of two simultaneous laser emissions with one pump laser.     

Tunable picosecond energy transfer distributed feedback dye laser using Rhodamine 6G and Thionine dye mixture

The characteristics of Nd:YAG laser pumped energy transfer distributed feedback dye laser (ETDFDL) is studied both theoretically and experimentally. Using theoretical model proposed the behaviour of ETDFDL for dye mixture Rhodamine 6G and Thionine is studied in detail. The characteristics of donor DFDL, the acceptor DFDL, the dependence of their pulse widths and output powers on donor–acceptor concentration and pump power are studied. The output energy of DFDL is measured experimentally at the emission peaks of donor and acceptor dyes for different pump powers and donor–acceptor concentrations. In addition, the tunability of DFDL emission is measured both in donor and acceptor emission ranges.     

An oscillator-amplifier dye laser: Tuneable high powers without grating damage

An oscillator-amplifier dye laser pumped by a single giant-pulse ruby laser is described. The system allows production of a tuneable 5 MW, 30 nsec pulse without damaging the intra-cavity echelle which is used to achieve the 0.05 nm linewidth. Higher powers should be obtainable by the addition of another amplifier cell.     

A high-power single-mode cw dye ring laser

Due to spatial hole burning, standing-wave dye lasers require a large amount of selectivity inside the cavity for single-mode operation. The output power of these lasers is limited by losses caused by the frequency selecting elements. In a travelling-wave laser, on the other hand, spatial hole burning does not exist, thereby eliminating the need for high selectivity. A travelling-wave cw dye laser was realized by unidirectional operation of a ring laser, yielding single mode output powers of 1.2 W at 595 nm and of 55 mW in the UV-region with intracavity frequency doubling.     

Optimization of dye-laser output coupling by consideration of the spatial gain distribution

The problem of output-coupling optimization of a transversely or longitudinally pumped dye laser is treated in terms of a rate equation approach under steady state considerations. The theoretical study considers the spatial variation of the gain distribution and such typical features of a dye laser as reabsorption, triplet effects and excited state absorption. Numerical results obtained with realistic values of typical laser parameters (cross-sections for stimulated emission and reabsorption, number density of active molecules etc.) indicate that a higher degree of output coupling and consequently higher output powers are feasible upon a complete consideration of the spatial gain distribution     

Scintillator and dye lasers in the range 350 to 600 nm pumped by a 200 kW nitrogen laser

A comparative study is presented of the laser output characteristics of ten fluorescent solutes in different solvents, pumped with the 337.1 nm radiation from a 200 kW nitrogen laser. With both 2 mm and 10 mm dye path lengths, peak output powers of several kilowatts were obtained at wavelengths ranging from 350 to 600 nm and with pulse-widths as short as 0.5 nsec FWHM. The dependence of the laser characteristics on such variables as the concentration and the transmission of the solutions and the way of focusing the exciting radiation into the dye cavity were investigated. Three dye cells were made to lase in cascade, one of the stages with an efficiency of 50%.     

Gain studies of Coumarin 503 dye-doped polymer laser

Solid-state dye doped polymer is an attractive alternative to the conventional liquid dye solution. In this paper, the laser characteristics of Coumarin 503 (C503) doped polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) rods modified with ethyl alcohol (EtOH) are studied under nitrogen laser excitation in a transverse pumping configuration and the variation of gain of the dye in solid medium for different pumping powers is studied. The gain of Coumarin 503 in solid medium is compared with the gain of Coumarin 503 in liquid medium and it is found that the gain of the dyes in the solid environment is less than that in the liquid environment. The photobleaching of dye in polymer medium under nitrogen laser excitation is also studied by keeping the rod in a fixed position and by rotating the rod about its cylindrical axis. It is found that the photobleaching rate is faster when the rod is in a fixed position.