Efficient cavity-dumped HgBr laser

The technique of cavity dumping was used to generate 8-nsec (FWHM) laser pulses from an UV preionized discharge-pumped HgBr laser emitting at 502 nm. The pulse width corresponds to the photon round trip transit time of the resonator. Optical output energies of 11.5 mJ/pulse and cavity-dumping efficiencies of 58 percent were obtained with a KD(asterisk)P Pockels cell and thin-film multilayer-dielectric polarizer. Short-pulse blue-green laser radiation is useful for bathymetry and other underseas ranging applications.