Short-cavity picosecond dye laser design

The design of a short-cavity dye laser is described. The laser produces a 2-psec pulse which is tunable in the range between 400 nm and 470 nm when pumped with an 8-psec 355-nm third-harmonic pulse from a modelocked Nd(+3) :glass laser. The laser features a variable calibrated cavity length (10-500 microm), a dye cell through which dye can be continuously flowed, and a compact rugged design. The laser has been incorporated into several picosecond spectroscopy experiments and has proved to be a convenient and useful tunable blue source.