Operational characteristics of a dye Q-switch for a pulsed ruby laser

This paper presents the results and analysis of experiments carried out on a dye Q-switch to evaluate its operational characteristics. The work was performed on a ruby laser, Q-switched by cryptocyanine in methanol solution. Investigations of performance with regards to pump energy, dye absorbance, output energy and timing of pulse emergence are graphically presented. These results were used to derive the efficiency of Q-switching for varying dye absorbance. Finally, optimization of the Q-switch performance for different requirements of the laser is considered.