A fractional handpiece and systems thereof for skin treatment include a passively Q-switched laser assembly operatively connected to a pump laser source to receive a pump laser beam having a first wavelength and a beam splitting assembly operable to split a solid beam emitted by the passively Q-switched laser assembly and form an array of micro-beams across a segment of skin. The passively Q-switched laser assembly generates a high power sub-nanosecond pulsed laser beam having a second wavelength.

A MOPA laser system that includes a seed laser configured to output pulsed laser light, an amplifier configured to receive and amplify the pulsed laser light emitted by the seed laser; and a pump laser configured to deliver a pump laser beam to both the seed laser and the amplifier and a variable attenuator configured to eliminate missing Q-switched pulses.

A planar waveguide amplifier includes a planar waveguide including a flat plate-like core; a first cladding provided on a first principal face of the core; and a second cladding provided on a second principal face of the core, and signal light and pumping light travel into the planar waveguide so that the signal light and the pumping light propagate inside the core in such a manner that optical paths of the signal light and the pumping light overlap each other, and in a zig-zag manner, and the core is an amplification medium containing a rare-earth element serving as an active ion of a three-level system, and absorbs the signal light on the basis of a reduction in intensity of the pumping light.

A microchip laser and a handpiece including the microchip laser. The microchip laser includes a laser medium with input and output facets. The input facet is coated with a highly reflective dielectric coating at microchip laser wavelength and highly transmissive at pump wavelength. The output facet is coated with a partially reflective at microchip laser wavelength dielectric coating. A saturable absorber attached by intermolecular forces to output facet of microchip laser. A handpiece for skin treatment includes the microchip laser.

A light absorbing layer which is bonded to a laser medium to configure a bonded body, wherein the light absorbing layer is formed from a glass material and, in an oscillation wavelength (wavelength of 650 nm or more and less than 1400 nm) of the laser medium, an absorption coefficient is 0.1 to 10.0 cm.sup.-1, a difference in refractive index between the light absorbing layer and the laser medium is within ±0.1, and a difference in linear thermal expansion coefficient between the light absorbing layer and the laser medium is within ±1 ppm/K. The present invention relates to a light absorbing layer for preventing parasitic oscillation, and aims to provide a material capable of suppressing the manufacturing cost and which can be easily processed for preparing a bonded body.

A laser amplifier includes a planar optical waveguide for laser amplification, and an input optical system for inputting signal light to a core layer of the planar optical waveguide. The input optical system includes: a collimating lens for converting output light from a signal light source into parallel light; an anamorphic prism for reducing the beam width in a first direction of output light from the collimating lens; and a cylindrical lens for collecting output light from the anamorphic prism in a second direction, and output light from the cylindrical lens is input to the core layer.

A laser apparatus that can generate a high-quality laser beam is provided. The laser apparatus is provided with a laser medium and an insulation layer. The laser medium has a first surface and a second surface. Incident laser light is incident on the first surface. The second surface totally reflects the incident laser light that is incident to the second surface at an incident angle equal to or larger than a critical angle. The insulation layer covers a second area of the second surface that surrounds a first area of the second surface, the first area totally reflecting the incident laser light. The laser medium is exposed in the first area.

A problem with a conventional waveguide type laser device is that in the case in which an isotropic laser medium is used for a core, linearly polarized light is not provided. A ridge waveguide laser device of the present disclosure includes: a substrate; a core joined to the substrate and having a laser medium, the core having a refractive index higher than that of the substrate; and a cladding joined to the core, constituting a ridge waveguide together with the core, and made from a birefringent material having ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices lower than the refractive index of the core, the ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices being different.

The present disclosure relates to a glass having a refractive index of at least 1.7 as well as the use of the glass as a cladding glass of a solid-state laser. The disclosure also relates to a laser component comprising a core of doped sapphire and a cladding glass being placed on said core. The cladding glass is arranged on said core such that light exiting from the core due to parasitic laser activity can enter the cladding glass and can be absorbed there. Thus, a laser component with improved efficiency is obtained. The present disclosure also relates to a method for producing the laser component.

A problem with a conventional waveguide type laser device is that in the case in which an isotropic laser medium is used for a core, linearly polarized light is not provided. A ridge waveguide laser device of the present disclosure includes: a substrate; a core joined to the substrate and having a laser medium, the core having a refractive index higher than that of the substrate; and a cladding joined to the core, constituting a ridge waveguide together with the core, and made from a birefringent material having ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices lower than the refractive index of the core, the ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices being different.