Methods of laser pulse development and maintenance in a compact laser resonator
AssigneeArete Associates
InventorMicha 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.
Claims18
A Q-switched laser system, comprising:
- a laser cavity comprising a Q-switch module, a laser gain medium, an output coupler, and a reflector, the Q-switch module being optically coupled between the laser gain medium and the reflector;
- a pump diode optically coupled to the laser gain medium, and operable to pump the gain medium with optical energy;
- an electric pulse generator electrically coupled to the Q-switch module;
- an adjustable power supply electrically coupled to the electric pulse generator, and operable to control the electric pulse generator to apply multilevel voltage pulses to the Q-switch module that cause the gain medium to build optical energy for emission of laser pulses through the output coupler;
- and
- a feedback module optically coupled to the output coupler and operable to automatically adjust the adjustable power supply based on a laser pulse emitted from the laser cavity through the output coupler to maintain at least one of a pre-determined shape a pre-determined intensity of a laser pulse output from the laser cavity.
A method operable with a laser cavity that comprises a Q-switch module, a laser gain medium, an output coupler, and a reflector, the Q-switch module being optically coupled between the laser gain medium and the reflector, and the method comprising:
- pumping the laser gain medium with optical energy using a pump diode;
- and
- controlling, via an adjustable power supply, an electric pulse generator to apply multilevel voltage pulses to the Q-switch module that cause the gain medium to build optical energy for emission of laser pulses through the output coupler;
- and
- automatically adjusting the adjustable power supply via a feedback module based on a laser pulse emitted from the laser cavity through the output coupler to maintain at least one of a pre-determined shape a pre-determined intensity of a laser pulse output from the laser cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.