A study of the production and application of nonlinear materials for use in frequency doubled dye lasers

Abstract

A selection of nonlinear materials for use in various frequency-doubled dye lasers is studied. Lithium Formate Monohydrate is operated intracavity in a Coumarin 102 dye laser for the first time. A maximum of 70 microwatts of tunable ultraviolet light was generated over the range 237nm to 24Snm, representing an improvement of an order of magnitude on previously reported work with this material. A pulsed xenon ion laser of high efficiency has been built and the design optimised, giving an output power of 185W. The laser is used to pump a Rhodamine 6G dye laser containing a crystal of Ammonium Dihydrogen Arsenate, to generate 280 milliwatts of tunable UV over the range 291nm to 297nm and this is the first time that a detailed study of this type of laser has been reported. A crystal growing system for water based crystals is described. A crystal of Urea grown in the apparatus has been cut for use in a dye laser and tested with the beam from an argon ion laser. A value of the nonlinear coefficient d14 of 0.90pm/V is reported.