Operation of a CVL pumped dye laser in the single longitudinal mode and its parametric characterization

The parametric characterization of a high repetition rate (∼9 kHz), indigenously developed, single longitudinal mode (SLM) dye laser based on a short Littman cavity and pumped by a copper vapor laser (CVL) is presented. The average bandwidth and the single pulse bandwidth have been measured to be ∼400 MHz and ∼315 MHz respectively for the SLM dye laser. Tunability of 12 nm over 554–566 nm has been achieved. The optimum dye concentration for minimum amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) has been determined experimentally for this SLM dye laser. The effect of pump power, grating diffraction efficiency, dye concentration on the buildup time of SLM and laser pulse duration has also been studied. The maximum buildup time was 15.5 ns for SLM dye laser pumped by green CVL. The buildup time is reduced by nearly 25% with increase of pump power from 1 W to 3 W. The minimum build up time of 6 ns was obtained with SLM dye laser pumped by second harmonic of Nd:YAG laser.