| 摘要 |
Controlling the emission of an optical pulse from a laser comprises pumping a gain medium for example, a Nd:YAG medium 10 of a laser at a rate which is limited so that free running passive Q-switching of the laser is prevented regardless of a duration of pumping of the gain medium. A saturable absorber 12 of the laser is triggered so as to reduce a laser cavity loss below a laser cavity gain and cause an optical pulse to be emitted from the laser at a desired emission time. This may provide for the reduction of pulse-to-pulse timing jitter, the control of energy of the emitted optical pulse and/or for the suppression of the emission of multiple optical pulses that may otherwise occur for free-running passive Q-switching of the laser for sufficient gain medium pumping rates. Apparatus 2 may include a light emitting diode LED 20 coupled to the saturable absorber 12 via optical elements and an LED driver 24. |
