Abstract

Frequency tunable, high-intensity, and short-duration laser pulses are of great interest for research and industrial applications. Recently, alexandrite lasers have allowed efficient Q-switched operation at high repetition rates, giving laser pulses tunable in the near IR. Unfortunately, as alexandrite gain is low, the pulse width is rather large (~100–200 ns). Therefore, short-duration pulses are only possible by using pulse compression techniques, of which one of the most convenient is Raman-induced cavity dumping of Raman pumped lasers.¹ This efficient technique is particularly interesting when these short-duration pulses are desired in the IR since it is then possible to benefit from both pulse compression and IR Raman shifting.

© 1986 Optical Society of America