Femtosecond synchronously pumped Pyridine dye lasers

Optical pulses as short as 103 fsec at 695 nm and 263 fsec at 733 nm have been generated in synchronously pumped hybrid Pyridine 1 and Pyridine 2 cw dye lasers, respectively, both using the saturable absorber 1,1'-diethyl-2,2'-dicarbocyanine iodide (DDI). These results combine with other data from the same linear cavity to give direct femtosecond generation over the spectral range 560-840 nm.