Laser cutting of stents and other medical devices

A method of processing a stent preform comprising the steps of:

• providing a stent preform;
• providing a laser system comprising:
• a) an optical cavity for resonating laser radiation
• b) an optical gain medium contained in the optical cavity
• c) a pump for periodically pumping the optical gain medium, the laser system producing a radiation pulse for each pump period;
• conditioning each radiation pulse to produce a pulse train of ordered pulses of radiation, each pulse train output from said optical cavity as an output laser beam;
• directing the laser beam at the stent preform;
• and
• impinging the laser beam onto the stent preform to cut a desired pattern in the stent preform.

A method of treating a stent comprising the steps of:

• providing a stent;
• providing a laser system comprising
• a) an optical cavity for resonating laser radiation
• b) an optical gain medium contained in the optical cavity
• c) an optical pump for periodically pumping the optical gain medium, the laser system producing a radiation pulse for each pump period;
• conditioning each radiation pulse to produce a pulse train of ordered pulses of radiation;
• directing each of the pulse trains at desired portions of the stent;
• and
• impinging the pulse trains onto desired portions of the stent.