Abstract

Conventional telescopes and multiple-prism arrangements are widely used in narrow-linewidth laser-pumped dye lasers. Typically, telescopes are employed to provide 2-D beam expansion while multiple-prism expanders are used to provide very high (>100) 1-D magnification factors. Recently, multiple-prism arrays have been further applied to yield very narrow linewidth operation in TEA CO₂ lasers, excimer lasers, and flashlamp-pumped dye lasers. Here we describe an optical system that utilizes a conventional telescope in conjunction with a multiple-prism expander, in a complementary mode, to produce extremely elongated Gaussianlike beams (typically 20 μm high by 60 mm wide). A complete ray-matrix analysis is given for the whole system, and it is shown that there is good agreement between measured and calculated beam parameters.

© 1987 Optical Society of America