Spectral characteristics of radiation from a cw dye laser with an intracavity absorbing gaseous medium

An investigation was made of the spectral characteristics of radiation from a cw dye laser when the lasing frequencies were locked to atomic absorption lines in a gas discharge. The experimentally observed behavior of the laser radiation spectrum when the lasing power and resonator tuning were varied agreed qualitatively with the conclusion that the characteristics of the absorbing medium that do not depend on the resonator field play a decisive role in the frequency locking mechanism. It was found that under frequency locking conditions in a dye jet laser with a linear resonator the spectrum can be narrowed down to the emission of two or three modes.