Optical design considerations in photobleaching with cw lasers

A new method is described which uses the stabilized output radiation of a cw laser as an exciting light source to study reversible and irreversible nonlinear absorption effects of organic dyes in aqueous solutions at high laser power densities. Design concepts which emerged from a closer study of the laser beam properties and its interaction with liquids are discussed. It is felt that this method is applicable not only for photolytic studies, but also in spectroscopic, spectrophotometric, and other experiments with cw lasers.