[Study of the effect of light source stability on the signal to noise ratio in degenerate four wave mixing experiment].

The effects of the stability of dye laser on the signal to noise ratio in degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) were first investigated in iodine vapor using forward geometries. Frequency-doubled outputs from a multi-mode Nd : YAG laser pumped dye laser with laser dye PM580 dissolved in ethanol was used. With the help of forward compensated beam-split technique and imaging detecting system, the saturation intensity of DFWM spectrum in the iodine vapor at 5 554.013 nm was first measured to be 290 microJ under the condition of atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The features of the dye laser such as wavelength ranges, beam quality and energy conversion efficiency decreased gradually with increasing pumping service use, pulse number and intensity. Additionally, with the comparison of the stable and unstable dye laser output, it was found that the instability of dye laser output had greatly influenced the DFWM signal and decreased the signal to background noise ratio. Shot to shot jitter and the broadening in the output frequency leads to an effective broadening of the recorded spectrum and loss of the DFWM signal to noise ratio under the same pumping intensity at different time. The study is of importance to the detection of trace atom, molecule and radical in combustion diagnosis.