Tunable dye laser with an acoustooptic CaMoO4 filter

A new optical system was proposed and an experimental investigation was made of an electronically tunable laser with an acoustooptic CaMoO₄ filter as the dispersive element. A wavelength tuning range of ~ 40 nm with a line width of 0.3 nm was obtained for rhodamine C. Single- and two-frequency operation was observed. It was found that when a CaMoO₄ acoustooptic filter was used, the laser could be operated at an rf control power of 1 W, so that it could even be used in the cw regime.