A study of the solvent temperature effects in a single longitudinal mode pulsed dye laser

Abstract

The effect of the dye solution temperature in a single longitudinal mode pulsed dye laser pumped by a copper vapor laser was studied in detail. The study was carried out using a laser wavelength meter. It was experimentally observed that the wavelength tuning of the single mode dye laser with respect to the optical path length was limited to a grating pass band of 2.5 GHz beyond which a second mode appeared, a mode hop occurred and the laser wavelength settled at a new value. We observed cyclic behavior of single to two mode oscillation when the cavity length was changed continuously in one direction. The wavelength jitter band was observed to be ∼2.5 pm for two mode oscillation while it was ∼0.5 pm for single mode oscillation. By stabilizing the dye solution temperature to a set value of 20 ± 0.15 • C the cyclic behavior was eliminated and only a small drift of 1.4 pm was obtained over more than 30 min of operation. The wavelength change was attributed to variation of the optical path length due to variation of the refractive index with temperature. The cyclic behavior of single mode to two modes was established by applying voltage to the end mirror PZT, which changed the cavity length with a resolution of 8.5 MHz nm −1 .

A computational model for transient temperature rise in a dye laser gain medium pumped by a copper vapor laser

“…Absorption of the pump beam in the dye solution and its effects on lasing have been extensively studied by various groups [26][27][28][29]. Recently Rawat et al [30] reported experimental observations of the effect of solvent temperature on the SLM dye laser wavelength. The rate at which energy is absorbed at any point within the dye cell reduces exponentially in the direction of propagation of the pump beam the dye cell through which the pump beam travels.…”

Characterization of dye cells for a high-repetition-rate pulsed dye laser by particle image velocimetry (PIV)

“…A tunable narrow-band pulsed dye laser with a high pulse repetition rate is the ultimate source of light for atomic spectroscopic studies [1,2]. The wavelength stability of the dye laser is influenced by the change in cavity length due to mechanical vibration, thermal expansion in the components of the dye laser, temperature fluctuations due to variation in the pump power, velocity fluctuations in the dye cell and a direct temperature variation of the dye solution [2][3][4][5][6]. The spectral width of the dye laser is determined by high-frequency fluctuations around a mean frequency as well as slow frequency drift of the mean wavelength [6].…”