PRECISELY TUNABLE, NARROW-BAND PULSED DYE-LASER

A marrow-band, precisely tunable dye laser pumped by an injection-seed ed YAG laser is described. The laser achieves an output of 100 mJ/puls e and 40% efficiency when one uses Rhodamine 6G dyes, The output pulse is Gaussian both in time and spatial profile. The laser oscillator em ploys an intracavity etalon that is repetitively pressure scanned over one free spectral range while the grating successively steps to conse cutive etalon modes. We pressure scanned the etalon under computer con trol using a bellows. Methods are described for calibrating the tuning elements for absolute precision. We demonstrated that the laser has a n absolute precision of +/-0.4 pm over a 1.0-nm scan. This accuracy is achievable over the wavelength range of a dye. (C) 1996 Optical Socie ty of America