Development and theoretical modeling of a broadband, tunable, pulsed dye laser

An excimer-laser pumped, tunable dye laser for broadband emission has been constructed for a novel molecular-beam experiment. By using Littrow prisms of different refractions as the dispersive elements, bandwidths from 0.7-1.5 nm with a tuning range of 40 nm were obtained. Pulse-to-pulse spectra were measured with a grating spectrometer-CCD camera combination, and the statistical analysis demonstrated the good stability. A ray-tracing model was used to calculate the passive bandwidth for different configurations. Augmented by dynamic considerations, the model can be used to approximate very well the dependence of the active bandwidth on the pump power, and to estimate the relative active bandwidths for different prism materials.