Optical pumping of dye lasers using an array of plasma pinches

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6921119

Rieger, H

A new optical pumping source consisting of an array of plasma pinches is employed to pump, for the first time, a variety of dye lasers. The plasma pinch is formed in a hollow cylindrical shape by electrically discharging a high-energy capacitor bank (approx. 14kJ) through a device containing a few torrs of hydrogen, deuterium or nitrogen gas. A dye cuvette is inserted along the symmetry axis of the plasma device such that it may be surrounded by the plasma pinch. Control of the plasma fluorescence is achieved by the choice of gas, its fill pressure, and the capacitor bank voltage and its stored energy. The rise time of this ''plasma flashlamp'' depends mainly on the gas species and the fill pressure. The shorter the rise time, the smaller the triplet quenching of the dye, resulting in higher laser output power. The light from the plasma pinch is very intense and rich in ultraviolet, which makes it an attractive optical pumping source for dye lasers, particularly in the blue-green spectral region. Output energy of approx.2 mJ per cm/sup 3/ of lasing medium or 2 kW/cm/sup 3/ for a 1-..mu..s laser pulse is obtained from rhodamine 6G, coumarin 480, LD-490, and coumarin 504 dyes.

• OSTI ID: 6921119
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
DYE LASERS
OPTICAL PUMPING
PERFORMANCE
COUMARIN
DEUTERIUM
ENERGY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HYDROGEN
NITROGEN
PINCH EFFECT
POWER
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
PULSE RISE TIME
RHODAMINES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
AMINES
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
DATA
DYES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
ESTERS
HETEROCYCLIC ACIDS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
LACTONES
LASERS
LIGHT NUCLEI
LIQUID LASERS
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PUMPING
PYRANS
RADIATIONS
REAGENTS
STABLE ISOTOPES
TIMING PROPERTIES
420300* - Engineering- Lasers- (-1989)