Studies on optical attenuation in sea water using dye laser and laser propagation in a turbulent medium

The central theme of the work presented in this thesis is a careful investigation of the factors influencing the attenuation of laser beam through sea water. The thesis presents a detailed report of the work done by the author on the attenuation studies in sea water and on laser propagation through a turbulent medium. The thesis contains six chapters which are more or less self-contained with separate abstracts and references. The first chapter is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the subject of laser propagation through sea water. It includes a brief description of optical properties of sea water followed by a review of the earlier works on attenuation studies in water. The second part gives the theoretical background of the problem of laser propagation through a turbulent medium.

Laser emission from transversely pumped dye-doped free-standing polymer film

We present a compact solid-state laser based on leaky mode propagation from a dye-doped polymer free-standing film waveguide. The edge emitted spectrum clearly indicated the existence of periodic resonant modes. The reflections from the lateral faces of the free-standing film provided the optical feedback thus giving rise to a Fabry–Perot like optical cavity. This together with the guidance through the gain medium gave rise to intense narrow emission lines. For a pump energy of 1.82 mJ/pulse, an intense line with FWHM ∼0.4 nmwas observed at 576.5 nm.

Laser emission from transversely pumped dye-doped free-standing polymer film

We present a compact solid-state laser based on leaky mode propagation from a dye-doped polymer free-standing film waveguide. The edge emitted spectrum clearly indicated the existence of periodic resonant modes. The reflections from the lateral faces of the free-standing film provided the optical feedback thus giving rise to a Fabry–Perot like optical cavity. This together with the guidance through the gain medium gave rise to intense narrow emission lines. For a pump energy of 1.82 mJ/pulse, an intense line with FWHM ∼0.4 nmwas observed at 576.5 nm.

Laser emission from transversely pumped dye-doped free-standing polymer film

We present a compact solid-state laser based on leaky mode propagation from a dye-doped polymer free-standing film waveguide. The edge emitted spectrum clearly indicated the existence of periodic resonant modes. The reflections from the lateral faces of the free-standing film provided the optical feedback thus giving rise to a Fabry–Perot like optical cavity. This together with the guidance through the gain medium gave rise to intense narrow emission lines. For a pump energy of 1.82 mJ/pulse, an intense line with FWHM ∼0.4 nmwas observed at 576.5 nm.

Filamentation in Air and Water and Nonlinear Optical Characterization of Biopolymer Using Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Important issues related to femtosecond (fs) pulses and its relevance to this thesis are discussed. A fundamental characteristic, like the timebandwidth product for fs pulses is decribed in detail. A brief review of generation of ultrashort pulses and its propagation through an optically transparent media are presented. Interaction of strong pulses with matter and different ionization processes are also described. An overview of the thesis is presented at the end