Generation of Coherent Pulses of 60 Optical Cycles Through Synchronization of the Relaxation Oscillations of a Mode-Locked Dye Laser

Abstract

Coherent interaction experiments on single photon transitions have so far been restricted to dilute vapors [1] (collision times in the nanosecond range), or “frozen media” [2] (like ruby cooled down to liquid He temperature, for which the phase relaxation time of some transitions can exceed 100 ns [3]). There is a need for a stable, highly coherent source of pulses of about 0.1 ps to apply these diagnostic techniques to complex molecules at room temperature. We report the successful development of such a source, yielding bandwidth limited pulses of 0.12 ps duration with 300W peak power.