Passive mode-locking of flashlamp pumped Rhodamine dye-lasers

A simple dye-laser system is described in which Rhodamine dyes are pumped by a co-axial linear air flashlamp in a cylindrical elliptical pumping reflector. Output pulses lasting up to 1.5sec and containing up to 250 mJ energy, have been successfully mode-locked to produce 100% modulated pulse trains. Employing a diffraction grating as cavity reflector to tune the laser frequency, in each case, for maximum absorption by the same Q-switching dye, successful mode-locking has been achieved with both Rhodamine B and Rhodamine 6G. Time resolved emission spectra have been recorded with an image tube streak camera and the effect of resonant reflectors has been studied.This work was described in a paper presented at the IEEE Conference on Laser Engineering and Applications, Washington, May 1969.