TEMPORALLY STABLE HYBRID DYE-TI-SAPPHIRE LASER BY SELF-INDUCED GAIN SWITCHING

A novel simple Nd:YAG-laser-pumped pulsed hybrid dye-Ti:sapphire laser is described. A spectral linewidth of 0.28 nm is selected near thresh old and tuned from 705 to 770 nm in a compact (15-cm long) cavity. Whe n the threshold is exceeded by a factor of 1-3, the jitter in the onse t of the Ti:sapphire laser pulse is reduced to 10 ns. This is about 7% of the 140-ns jitter for a pure Ti:sapphire laser under equivalent co nditions. The result is achieved via accelerated gain switching in the Ti:sapphire induced by intracavity injection of radiation from the dy e.