Passive mode locking of the cw dye laser

Passive mode locking of a cw Rhodamine 6G laser is reported. A stable continuous output of picosecond pulses has been achieved. Correlation measurements using second‐harmonic generation (SHG) have determined the pulses to be as short as 1.5 psec. The pulses are transform limited and are wavelength tunable over the range 5900–6100 A.