Operation of an infrared dye laser synchronously pumped by a mode-locked CW Nd:YAG laser

Infrared dyes emitting around 1.3 μm exhibit fluorescence lifetimes τ
fl
of only ∼ 10 ps which are shorter than the duration of the pump pulses (
t_{p} \sim70
ps). This fact results in performance characteristics different from those of visible dye lasers where the fluorescence lifetime is longer than t
p
. The pulse properties of IR dye lasers are investigated for various bandwidth-limiting elements. The generation of nearly transform-limited dye laser pulses as short as 6 ps-assuming a Gaussian temporal shape-is demonstrated.