Controlling emission of passive Q-switched laser pulses

摘要

A method for controlling emission of optical pulses from a passive Q-switched laser apparatus 112 (Figure 1) comprises pumping a gain medium 114 of a passive Q-switched laser apparatus for the emission of a plurality of Q-switched optical pulses from the laser apparatus. The method may further comprise pumping the gain medium so as to maintain an optical gain provided by the gain medium above an unpumped optical gain level for the duration of a time period from emission of one Q-switched optical pulse to emission of a subsequent Q-switched optical pulse. The method may further comprise varying a rate of pumping of the gain medium between emission of the one Q-switched optical pulse and emission of the subsequent Q-switched optical pulse so as to control the temporal separation between the one Q-switched optical pulse and the subsequent Q-switched optical pulse. The gain medium may comprise a solid state gain medium. The method may comprise optically pumping the gain medium.