1.  Home
  2. Whitepapers
  3. Methods for Pulsed-Laser Operation

Methods for Pulsed-Laser Operation

Download Whitepaper

Methods for Pulsed-Laser Operation

Download Whitepaper
A laser operating in CW mode has constant output power as a function of time. This is the result of reaching a steady-state condition where balance is maintained between the laser cavity gain (dictated by the population inversion which is proportional to the pumping rate) and loss (which includes the cavity losses and the stimulated emission rate). As discussed in Laser Light Characteristics, it is often desirable to operate lasers in a pulsed mode since this can significantly increase the peak output power. Pulsed-laser operation can be achieved by sending a CW laser output through an external modulator that acts as a switch allowing light to transmit for only short time periods (see Figure 1, left). This simple method has many disadvantages. Since most of the light is blocked by the modulator, the method is very inefficient. Furthermore, the peak power can never exceed the average power of the CW source. The duration of the pulse is also limited by the speed of the modulator.

Download Whitepaper Now