Apparatus and methods for producing ultrashort optical pulses are described. A high-power, solid-state, passively mode-locked laser can be manufactured in a compact module that can be incorporated into a portable instrument. The mode-locked laser can produce sub-50-ps optical pulses at a repetition rates between 200 MHz and 50 MHz, rates suitable for massively parallel data-acquisition. The optical pulses can be used to generate a reference clock signal for synchronizing data-acquisition and signal-processing electronics of the portable instrument.

Methods and apparatus for controlling laser firing timing and hence bandwidth in a laser capable of operating at any one of multiple repetition rates.

A method includes driving, while producing a burst of pulses at a pulse repetition rate, a spectral feature adjuster among a set of discrete states at a frequency correlated with the pulse repetition rate; and in between the production of the bursts of pulses (while no pulses are being produced), driving the spectral feature adjuster according to a driving signal defined by a set of parameters. Each discrete state corresponds to a discrete value of a spectral feature. The method includes ensuring that the spectral feature adjuster is in one of the discrete states that corresponds to a discrete value of the spectral feature of the amplified light beam when a pulse in the next burst is produced by adjusting one or more of: an instruction to the lithography exposure apparatus, the driving signal to the spectral feature adjuster, and/or the instruction to the optical source.

A method generates laser pulses by varying a Q-factor in a resonator. The method includes generating the laser pulses by controlling an optical modulator with a control signal for switching over between a first operating state of the optical modulator for generating a first Q-factor in the resonator and a second operating state of the optical modulator for generating a second Q-factor in the resonator. The second Q-factor is different than the first Q-factor. In order to generate a sequence of the laser pulses in which first laser pulses alternate with second laser pulses different than the first laser pulses, the optical modulator is controlled differently in each case alternately with the control signal for generating a respective first laser pulse, of the first laser pulses, and a respective second laser pulse, of the second laser pulses.

A laser ignition device includes an excitation light source that generates excitation light, and a pulsed laser oscillator connected to the excitation light source, wherein the pulsed laser oscillator generates a plurality of pulsed light beams at a time of one ignition to produce an initial flame.

A laser resonator includes a gain medium that produces light from pump energy and a variable light attenuator, which receives light and emits either (i) a first light including a continuous series of micropulses, or (ii) a second light including a series of macropulses at spaced time intervals, where each macropulse includes a series of micropulses. Each micropulse has a duration of 0.1 to 10 microseconds, and a duration of each macropulse is less than the time interval between each macropulse, and the micropulses have a frequency of 5 kHz to 40 kHz.

A laser light-source apparatus includes a seed light source 10, fiber amplifiers 20 and 30 and a solid state amplifier 50 configured to amplify pulse light output from the seed light source, nonlinear optical elements 60 and 70 configured to perform wavelength conversion on the pulse light output from the solid state amplifier 50 and output the resultant pulse light, a semiconductor optical amplifier 15 disposed between the seed light source 10 and the solid state amplifier 50 and configured to amplify the pulse light output from the seed light source 10, and a control unit 100 configured to execute gain switching control processing in which the seed light source 10 is driven at a desired pulse rate, and semiconductor optical amplifier control processing in which an injection current to the semiconductor optical amplifier 15 is controlled depending on the pulse rate of the seed light source 10, and thus, generation of a giant pulse can be reliably prevented, regardless of the pulse rate of the seed light source.

A laser resonator includes a gain medium that produces light from pump energy and a variable light attenuator, which receives light and emits either (i) a first light including a continuous series of micropulses, or (ii) a second light including a series of macropulses at spaced time intervals, where each macropulse includes a series of micropulses. Each micropulse has a duration of 0.1 to 10 microseconds, and a duration of each macropulse is less than the time interval between each macropulse, and the micropulses have a frequency of 5 kHz to 40 kHz.

Method and systems are disclosed for generating amplified output laser pulses with individually predefined pulse energies at individually predefined times at an output by providing a pulse sequence of input laser pulses having the same pulse energy and the same temporal pulse interval smaller than the temporal pulse interval between two adjacent output laser pulses, selecting the input laser pulses that arrive at the output at or about the predefined times, amplifying the selected input laser pulses with an optical amplifier, wherein at least one sacrificial laser pulse is inserted into the pulse sequence of the selected input laser pulses before the subsequent one of the two successive input laser pulses to be amplified, and reducing the pulse energies of the amplified input laser pulses to predefined pulse energies by time-controlled partial decoupling depending on their pulse intervals from the corresponding immediately preceding amplified input or sacrificial laser pulse.

Systems and methods for operating a dual-comb laser. The methods comprise: generating pulsed laser beams by first and second laser sources of the dual-comb laser, at least one of the first and second laser sources comprises a diode pumped solid state laser with an output intensity that is modifiable; and matching phase repetition rates of the pulsed laser beams by selectively modifying the output intensity of the diode pumped solid state laser.