Thermal effects in double prism dye laser cavities

Output power, beam divergence, and frequency stability in a double-prism dye laser cavity have been investigated as a function of temperature. For rhodamine 6G dye, it has been found that output power decreases by nearly 34 percent, beam divergence increases from 4.5 to 6.5 mrads, and the laser frequency is shifted by as much as 2 cm
^-1
, for an increase of 10°C above room temperature. The efficiency of the double-prism dye laser oscillator employed here was 18 percent (for N
2
laser pump) at a linewidth of 0.07 cm
^-1
(FWHM). Laser linewidth did not vary in the temperature range investigated here.