PULSED SINGLE-MODE DYE-LASER FOR COHERENT CONTROL EXPERIMENTS

We describe a pulsed single-mode dye laser whose output characteristic s satisfy the stringent requirements of coherent control experiments. This simple, low cost laser exhibits 1.6X transform-limited frequency performance with a single-shot linewidth of 58 MHz, and a time average d linewidth of 240 MHz. The spatial mode is nearly Gaussian and has a beam quality parameter M-2 = 1.2. We modified the pulse shape using sa turable absorption in the dye amplifier. The resultant pulses are temp orally smooth and have a duration of approximately 20 ns. (C) 1997 Ame rican Institute of Physics.