VERFAHREN UND EINRICHTUNG ZUM ERZEUGEN VON ULTRAKURZEN LASERIMPULSEN

Ultra-short individual laser pulses, having a half-amplitude duration of 100 picoseconds or less and a recurrence frequency of one Hz to one mHz are generated in a self Q-switching distributed feedback dye laser that employs a high density diffraction grating as a beam divider, dividing a primary beam from a pulsed pump laser into two excitation beams of +1 and -1 order; the excitation beams are directed, by two reversing mirrors, to impinge upon a focal line in a dye solution serving as an active laser medium. The pulses of the primary beam have a half-amplitude duration many times greater than 100 psec but no greater than 20 nsec, and the beam intensity is such that the stimulation of the dye does not exceed its laser threshold by more than 20%.