Abstract
Spectral behavior and pulse train instabilities of a synchronously
pumped mode-locked dye laser
The pulse-train envelope of a synchronously pumped mode-locked dye
laser has been experimentally studied as a function of cavity length detuning.
When a bandwidth-limiting tuning filter is included and the cavity is adjested
to the length that yields optically short (~2-psec) pulses, there is a
slow (less than 800 kHz), erratic amplitude modulation that provides a
20% variation in pulse energies. As the cavity length is detuned on the
order of one part in 104, the modulation vanishes, but the individual pulse
lengths increase dramatically. Further detuning results in a clean periodic
envelope with a 20% modulation depth and a ~5-msec period. With the birefringent
filter removed, the dye-laser wavelength and bandwidth are studied as functions
of the cavity length. Temporally, the clean periodic modulation persists
at large detunings, but there is no length at which any erratic modulation
can be observed without the bandwidth-limiting filter.
Date Modified January, 1998
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