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.

A dual-comb measuring system is provided. The dual comb measuring system may include a bi-directional mode-locked femtosecond laser, a high-speed rotation stage, and a fiber coupler. The high-speed rotation stage may be coupled to a pump diode.

A compound represented by the formula (1) has excellent lasing properties. G.sup.1 and G.sup.2 are H or substituent; FL.sup.1 and FL.sup.2 are represented by the formula (2); BT is represented by the formula (4); and n1, n2 and m are 1 to 5.

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Provided is a multiple laser pulse oscillation method using multiple Q-switching capable of reducing peak power of laser and increasing energy efficiency. A multiple laser pulse oscillation method using multiple Q-switching includes: forming one period of light energy; exciting electrons of a gain medium by the light energy; performing first Q-switching during one period of the light energy; oscillating a first laser pulse by the first Q-switching; performing second Q-switching during one period of the light energy; and oscillating a second laser pulse by the second Q-switching.

A laser transmitter including a waveform controller arranged to generate a waveform script having at least one of a pulse repetition frequency setting, a pulse duration setting, and a pulse amplitude pre-warp setting. The transmitter also includes an optical waveform generator arranged to: i) receive the waveform script, ii) generate pre-warped signal pulses based on the waveform script to compensate for gain distortion effects of a laser power amplifier, and iii) output the pre-warped signal pulses. The laser power amplifier is arranged to: i) receive the pre-warped signal pulses, ii) receive a continuous wave signal, and iii) output amplified signal pulses that maintain a substantially constant drive intensity at the input of a non-linear wavelength converter. The non-linear wavelength converter is arranged to receive the amplified signal pulses and emit wavelength-converted pulses.

A light source device includes a laser oscillator for emitting a continuous laser beam and a pulsed laser beam. The laser oscillator has a resonator, at least one laser medium in the resonator, a first pumping unit for supplying light to the laser medium, and a second pumping unit for supplying another light to the laser medium. The light source device also includes a plasma vessel to receive the continuous laser beam and the pulsed laser beam from the laser oscillator, generate plasma, and emit light derived from the plasma. The light source device also includes a first electricity feeder for feeding electricity to the first pumping unit, a second electricity feeder for feeding electricity to the second pumping unit, and a controller for controlling the first and second electricity feeders such that the first pumping unit generates continuous light, and the second pumping unit generates pulsed light.

A short-pulse, narrowband, line-selectable and tunable solid-state laser is described. The device requires a pump source, an active solid-state laser medium, an enclosing cavity, mirrors to contain the light, a method of removing the pulse from the cavity, a wavelength selection system, and a laser linewidth narrowing system. One implementation of this is an Er:YAG laser, side pumped by semiconductor lasers in the erbium absorption band near 1475 nm, with an intracavity etalon and a switchable spectral filter. To remove the pulse from the cavity, cavity dumping issues, which assures constant pulse energy and pulse length over a range of repetition rates, in this case from 100 Hz to 20 kHz. Line selection is obtained by use of wavelength filters and fine tuning with an etalon, which also acts as the linewidth narrowing system.

A method for providing spectral beam combining (SBC) including generating a plurality seed beams each having a central wavelength and a low fill factor profile, where the wavelength of all of the seed beams is different; amplifying the seed beams; causing the amplified beams to expand as they propagate so as to be converted from the low fill factor profile to a high fill factor profile where the high fill factor profile tapers to a lower value at a perimeter of each beam; causing a wavefront of the converted beams to flatten to provide a plurality of adjacent SBC beams having different wavelengths with minimal overlap and a minimal gap between the beams; collimating the SBC beams; and directing the collimated SBC beams onto an SBC element that spatially diffracts the individual beam wavelengths and directing the beams in the same direction as a combined output beam.

The system and method for a scalable optically pumped CO.sub.2 laser. The optically pumped CO.sub.2 laser having a Tm fiber laser configured to pump a Q-switched Ho laser that is configured to pump a molecular isotopologue mix of CO.sub.2 above atmospheric pressure, to produce a broadband, high energy, tunable output beam.

The invention relates to a microstructured optical fiber for generating incoherent supercontinuum light upon feeding of pump light. The microstructured optical fiber has a first section and a second section. A cross-section through the second section perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the fiber has a second relative size of microstructure elements and preferably a second pitch that is smaller than a blue edge pitch for the second relative size of microstructure elements. The invention also relates to an incoherent supercontinuum source comprising a microstructured optical fiber according to the invention.