Disclosed is a system for arbitrary control of amplitude, phase and polarization characteristics of light in pulsed laser systems, allowing fast pulse-to-pulse modification of the above-mentioned parameters for single pulses or arbitrarily long and closely-spaced bursts of pulses. The control uses an electro-optic device, driving it by a specially designed high voltage driver. The operation of the driving electronics is based on the precise control of charging and discharging a Pockels cell inherent capacitance. This inherent capacitance is typically considered as parasitic. Therefore, prior voltage drivers operate in spite of the capacitance instead of using it. The present high voltage driver consists of a multitude of current-controlled stages capable of sinking and sourcing specific and adjustable currents into the capacitive load of the Pockels cell. The disclosed device and the corresponding control method allow for precise and energy-efficient shaping of Pockels cell control voltage.

An electrically tunable non-reciprocal phase shifter, an electrically tunable polarization filter, a NALM mode-locked laser and a Sagnac loop are provided. The electrically tunable non-reciprocal phase shifter includes a modulation crystal device, a birefringent crystal device, a Faraday rotator, and a fiber coupler. The phase shifter is configured to couple two beams of light to a fast axis and a slow axis of the modulation crystal device, respectively; and change a refractive index difference between the fast axis and the slow axis to introduce different phase delays for the two beams of the light, so as to control a non-reciprocal linear phase shift amount between the two beams of the light.

An apparatus includes a wavelength-tunable laser and an electronic controller. The electronic controller is configured to control the wavelength-tunable laser such that an output wavelength of the wavelength-tunable laser performs a zigzag in time. The wavelength-tunable laser is capable of rapidly and densely scanning wavelengths across a broad spectral range.

A synthesizer including a controller configured to receive a first signal. A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is coupled to the controller and is configured to generate a voltage bias based on the first signal. The voltage bias corresponds to a target resonant frequency. A semiconductor laser is coupled to the DAC and is configured to receive a second signal tone. The semiconductor laser generates a plurality of tone signals having octave multiples of a base sub-harmonic tone of the second signal tone.

A liquid crystal based optical deflector includes a light source array configured to generate a laser beam, an optical deflector including a plurality of liquid crystal cells, which transmit the laser beam, the optical deflector configured to deflect a transmission path of the laser beam depending on a gradually increased voltage profile applied to the plurality of liquid crystal cells, an optics assembly configured to scan the laser beam deflected by the optical defector in a horizontal direction, and a controller configured to adjust the voltage profile applied to the plurality of liquid crystal cells.

A single-frequency laser apparatus comprises a mirror and a volume Bragg grating (VBG) reflector defining a laser cavity therebetween and an optical gain material for emitting and amplifying an intra-cavity beam in the laser cavity. The optical gain material comprises a transition-metal doped crystal such as a crystal doped with transition-metal ions selected from one or more of Ti.sup.3+ ions, Cr.sup.2+ ions, Cr.sup.3+ ions or Cr.sup.4+ ions. A reflectivity spectrum of the VBG reflector and an optical length of the laser cavity are selected so that a beam output from the laser cavity is a single-frequency output beam and/or includes only one longitudinal mode of the laser cavity. The laser apparatus may provide a robust, compact, low cost, high-power wavelength adjustable (from approximately 650 to 950 nm), narrow linewidth (<100 kHz), single frequency laser source which is suitable for a wide range of applications from laser sensing, spectroscopy, and high precision frequency metrology sectors.

A system for generating extreme ultraviolet light, in which a target material inside a chamber is irradiated with a laser beam to be turned into plasma, includes a first laser apparatus configured to output a first laser beam, a second laser apparatus configured to output a pedestal and a second laser beam, and a controller connected to the first and second laser apparatuses and configured to cause the first laser beam to be outputted first, the pedestal to be outputted after the first laser beam, and the second laser beam having higher energy than the pedestal to be outputted after the pedestal.

A narrow linewidth mid infrared laser, including a pumping laser diode with a fast-axis compressor and a pumping wavelength λ.sub.o; and an optical resonator arranged to receive the pumping wavelength λ.sub.o, the optical resonator including a laser crystal with a lasing wavelength λ.sub.p, a dichroic mirror, and a nonlinear crystal to generate an idler wavelength λ.sub.i.

A laser source for an ophthalmic surgical system includes a femtosecond seeder, an amplifier, a femtosecond pulse portion, a nanosecond pulse portion, and one or more switches. The femtosecond seeder generates femtosecond pulses. The amplifier amplifies laser pulses, which include the femtosecond pulses and nanosecond pulses. The amplifier amplifies the laser pulses by amplifying the femtosecond pulses and generating and amplifying the nanosecond pulses. The femtosecond pulse portion alters and outputs the femtosecond pulses, and the nanosecond pulse portion alters and outputs the nanosecond pulses. The switches receive the laser pulses from the amplifier, and direct the laser pulses to the femtosecond pulse portion or the nanosecond pulse portion. In other embodiments, the laser source includes a femtosecond seeder and a nanosecond seeder that generates the nanosecond pulses.

Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for applying laser energy having desired pulse characteristics, including a sufficiently short duration and/or a sufficiently high energy for the photomechanical treatment of skin pigmentations and pigmented lesions, both naturally-occurring (e.g., birthmarks), as well as artificial (e.g., tattoos). The laser energy may be generated with an apparatus having a resonator with the capability of switching between a modelocked pulse operating mode and an amplification operating mode. The operating modes are carried out through the application of a time-dependent bias voltage, having waveforms as described herein, to an electro-optical device positioned along the optical axis of the resonator.