Abstract

This paper describes temporal characteristics of light pulses from a commercial Nd:YAG-pumped dye laser (Quanta-Ray DCR-2A/PDL-2). The dye laser is of Hansch design with a ×100 beam expander and an intracavity etalon and uses coumarin 500 (C500) or DCM as the active medium. A Hamamatsu C2830 streak camera with 40-ps resolution produces time records of the 355-nm pump light, the 500-nm dye laser output, and its 250-nm second harmonic. These records show complex temporal structure undetectable with an ITT F4000 biplanar photodiode and Tektronix 7104 oscilloscope.

© 1988 Optical Society of America