A laser system, comprised of: a laser cavity; a gain medium a pump, a saturable absorber (SA); a first mirror and a second mirror; wherein a ratio of an area of the laser beam within the gain medium to an area of the beam area within the SA is greater than 1, and wherein the beam generates a gain medium radius spot on the gain medium and a saturable absorber radius spot on the saturable absorber such that a ratio between the gain medium radius spot on the gain medium and a saturable absorber radius spot on the saturable absorber is within a range of 1.7-7 is disclosed. A method for using the laser system e.g., for producing a pulsed energy is further disclosed.

Examples of compact control electronics for precision frequency combs are disclosed. Application of digital control architecture in conjunction with compact and configurable analog electronics provides precision control of phase locked loops with reduced or minimal latency, low residual phase noise, and/or high stability and accuracy, in a small form factor.

The present disclosure discloses a saturable absorber mirror of a composite structure, including: a substrate; a buffer layer on the substrate; a distributed Bragg reflective mirror on the buffer layer; a quantum dot or quantum well saturable absorber body on the distributed Bragg reflective mirror; a graphene saturable absorber body on the quantum dot or quantum well saturable absorber body. In the present disclosure, the graphene saturable absorber body is composited with the quantum dot saturable absorber body or the quantum well saturable absorber body to be used as the saturable absorber body in the saturable absorber mirror of the present disclosure. A thermal damage threshold and an optical property stability of the saturable absorber body are improved, and an ultrafast laser pulse with high power and short pulse mode locking, a stable output repetition cycle, a narrow pulse width, and a short response time is implemented.

The present disclosure discloses a saturable absorber mirror of a composite structure, including: a substrate; a buffer layer on the substrate; a distributed Bragg reflective mirror on the buffer layer; a quantum dot or quantum well saturable absorber body on the distributed Bragg reflective mirror; a graphene saturable absorber body on the quantum dot or quantum well saturable absorber body. In the present disclosure, the graphene saturable absorber body is composited with the quantum dot saturable absorber body or the quantum well saturable absorber body to be used as the saturable absorber body in the saturable absorber mirror of the present disclosure. A thermal damage threshold and an optical property stability of the saturable absorber body are improved, and an ultrafast laser pulse with high power and short pulse mode locking, a stable output repetition cycle, a narrow pulse width, and a short response time is implemented.

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.

An optical pulse generation device includes an optical resonator of mode-locked type, a light source, and a waveform controller. The optical resonator includes an optical amplification medium and generates, amplifies, and outputs laser light. The light source is optically coupled to the optical resonator and supplies excitation light to the optical amplification medium. The waveform controller is arranged in the optical resonator, and controls a time waveform of the laser light within a predetermined period to convert the laser light into an optical pulse train including two or more optical pulses within a period of the optical resonator. The optical resonator amplifies the optical pulse train after the predetermined period and outputs the optical pulse train having amplified as the laser light.

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.

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.

Alight source device includes a resonator having first and second mirrors, a gain medium disposed between the first and second mirrors and including a first semiconductor portion, an active layer, and a second semiconductor portion arranged in this order in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis of the resonator, and having first and second principal surfaces respectively located on sides of the first and second semiconductor portions opposite to sides on which the active layer is provided, a first heat dissipation member located on a first principal surface side of the gain medium, and a second heat dissipation member located on a second principal surface side of the gain medium. The resonator and the gain medium are arranged such that the optical axis passes through the gain medium.

The invention provides light-emitting compositions, including lasing and fluorescent compositions. The invention particularly relates to programmable biological substrates, which fluoresce and/or lase, and which have a wide variety of different applications. The invention extends to use of the fluorescent compositions and lasing compositions comprising programmable biological substrates in fabricating lasers, and in various biological imaging applications, such as in assays.