We show that the photoacoustic signals generated at the high reflection mir
ror of a pulsed laser depend linearly on the output energy. This allows us
to measure acoustically the output energy, the tuning range, and the optimu
m temperature and concentration of a dye laser, with the advantage that the
re is no interference of the output beam, as is the case with optical measu
rements. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)00501-8].