Methods of laser pulse development and maintenance in a compact laser resonator
AssigneeArete Associates
InventorMicah Boyd
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein are methods for developing and maintaining pulses that are produced from compact resonant cavities using one or more Q-switches and maintaining the output parameters of these pulses created during repetitive pulsed operation. The deterministic control of the evolution of a Q-switched laser pulse is complicated due to dynamic laser cavity feedback effects and unpredictable environmental inputs. Laser pulse shape control in a compact laser cavity (e.g., length/speed of light<˜1 ns) is especially difficult because closed loop control becomes impossible due to causality. Because various issues cause laser output of these compact resonator cavities to drift over time, described herein are further methods for automatically maintaining those output parameters.
Claims10
A method comprising:
- first instructing a Q-switched laser to generate a first pulsed laser output by:
- sending a first Q switch loss condition to a Q-switch of the Q-switched laser starting at a first time and;
- sending a first pumping energy to a gain medium of the Q-switched laser, the first Q-switch loss condition comprising:
- a first Q-switch drive voltage with a first voltage slope of a first rise to the first Q-switch drive voltage;
- and
- a transition delta time between the first voltage slope and before a second rise to a second Q-switch drive voltage, with the second rise having a second voltage slope;
- analyzing a defect in the first pulsed laser output of the Q-switched laser to characterize the defect in the first pulsed laser output as either a low energy defect type or a high energy defect type;
- and
- based on the analyzing the first pulsed laser output of the Q-switched laser, second instructing the Q-switched laser to generate a second pulsed laser output after the first pulsed laser output by:
- repeating sending the first Q-switch loss condition to the Q-switch of the Q-switched laser starting at a second time;
- and
- sending a second pumping energy to the gain medium of the Q-switched laser;
- wherein the second pumping energy is greater than the first pumping energy if the defect is characterized as a low energy defect type and wherein the second pumping energy is less than the first pumping energy if the defect is characterized as a high energy defect type.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.