Investigation of polarization effects resulting from injection of linearly polarized radiation into a dye laser resonator

An experimental investigation established that the polarization of dye laser radiation was not controlled by the polarization of injected radiation. Irrespective of the azimuth of the polarization of the injected radiation, a dye laser pumped longitudinally with linearly polarized radiation generated linearly polarized radiation with an azimuth identical with that of the pump radiation. When the pumping was isotropic, the laser radiation became unpolarized. The experimental results were attributed to an induced dichroism of the active medium.