A measurement station to examine the longitudinal mode structure of Q-switched solid state lasers on a single
pulse basis is presented. The key component is a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) providing a high finesse to
not only display the full spectral emission bandwidth but also resolve single modes of high gain laser media
such as Nd : YVO4. In addition the setup allows one to link relative pulse energy data to each recorded fringe
pattern. It is then used to quantify the spectral information of three lasers with a cavity length of up to 200mm
to evaluate correlations among pulse stability, pulse repetition frequency and spectral emission characteristics.
The optical approach implies a decaying finesse from approximately 250 to 60 across the measurement range.
Therefore the setup can only partially resolve single longitudinal modes of lasers with a cavity length greater
than 130mm but still gives a qualitative picture of the emission bandwidth that allows a deeper understanding
of the spectral characteristics and thus points the direction for performance improvement.
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