APPLICATIONS

       As a source for spectroscopy, the dye laser is ideal given the wide range over which tuning may be accomplished and the narrow spectral width of the output. It is used in situations such as atomic absorption spectroscopy, where the beam is passed through a sample in a cell or a hot gas such as exhaust gas from a flame or the gases burning inside the cylinder of an internal combustion engine. Compact flash lamp-pumped dye lasers are occasionally employed in the field of opthalmology for retinal photocoagulation. Tunability allows the output to be optimized for the peak absorption wavelength of hemoglobin, and the pulses are short enough to coagulate blood without generating an explosive shock wave within tissue as Q-switched laser pulses can.