13-μ subpicosecond pulses from a dye laser pumped by compressed Nd:YAG-laser pulses

Tunable dye-laser pulses of 300 fsec have been generated by synchronously pumping with pulses of a mode-locked Nd:YAG laser compressed to 5 psec. The tuning range lies between 1.25 and 1.35 μm. Conventional pumping with 100-psec pulses results in dye-laser pulses of 3-psec duration. The two pumping schemes are compared, and it is found that the mode-locking stability is greatly improved when the short pump pulses are employed.