High-power high-repetition-rate copper-vapor-pumped dye laser

The design and development of an efficient high average power dye laser oscillator-amplifier system developed at the Laser & Plasma Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, is reported. The dye laser is pumped by a 6.5-kHz repetition rate copper vapor laser. The signal beam to the dye amplifier is obtained from an efficient narrow-band grazing incidence grating (GIG) dye laser oscillator incorporating a multiple prism beam expander. Amplifier extraction efficiency up to 40% was obtained in a single amplifier stage, using rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) in ethanol. We have also demonstrated simultaneous amplification of two laser beams at different wavelengths in the same dye amplifier cell.