Dye laser tuning with pellicles

Abstract

Thin nitrocellulose membranes (pellicles) are shown to exhibit properties which make them suitable for intracavity tuning elements in high‐energy pulsed dye lasers. Uncoated pellicles of 2‐μm and 8‐μm thickness with surface figures of λ/1 are shown to closely approximate the properties of low‐finesse etalons with wide free spectral ranges. Pellicles of 8‐μm thickness and coated on both surfaces with 50% reflectivity multilayer dielectrics are shown to be effective as spectral narrowing elements with peak transmission greater than 80% and resultant laser linewidths of 0.57 nm full width at half‐maximum (FWHM).