Dye laser studies using zig-zag optical cavity

We report a substantial advance in dye laser performance using a zig-zag optical cavity. This configuration drastically reduces the effects of intrapulse medium disturbances due to acoustics and thermal lensing on pulse duration, beam quality, and extraction efficiency. Laser outputs of up to 2 J were observed from Coumarin-498 dye pumped by a KrF excimer laser. The dye laser output faithfully replicates the hat-top KrF laser pump pulse over the entire 1.7-/spl mu/s pulse duration. An intrinsic laser photon conversion efficiency (Photons/sub inPhotons/sub absorbed/) of 44% was measured. When unstable resonator optics were used, beam qualities of about 2 XDL were measured.<
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