A synchronously mode-locked dye laser source for tunable picosecond spectroscopy and nonlinear frequency mixing

A mode-locked tunable dye laser has been developed which is synchronously pumped at high repetition rates by the doubled output of a mode-locked Nd:YAG laser. The dye laser provides intense pulses of 35 psec duration that are widely tunable, of near-transform-limited bandwidth, and in time coincidence with the pumping pulses. Conditions for achieving optimal pulse duration, lasing efficiency, spectral narrowing and tuning are discussed. Initial experiments using synchronous dye and pump laser pulses have demonstrated efficient sum-frequency generation in a KDP crystal of intense tunable near-UV short pulses.