An electrodeless laser-driven light source includes a laser source that generates a CW sustaining light and a pump laser that generates a pump. An optical beam combiner combines the CW sustaining light and the pump such that the CW sustaining light and the pump propagate co-linearly. A Q-switched laser crystal generates pulsed light in response to the pump. A gas-filled bulb is configured such that the pulsed light ignites a pulse plasma in a breakdown region of the gas bulb and the sustaining light sustains a CW plasma in a CW plasma region of the gas bulb, thereby emitting a high brightness light from the gas bulb, where the gas-filled bulb is positioned between the output of the pump laser and the pump input of the Q-switched laser crystal such that the CW plasma absorbs the pump light quenching the pulsed light generated by the Q-switched laser crystal.

An electrodeless laser-driven light source includes a laser source that generates a CW sustaining light and a pump laser that generates a pump. An optical beam combiner combines the CW sustaining light and the pump such that the CW sustaining light and the pump propagate co-linearly. A Q-switched laser crystal generates pulsed light in response to the pump. A gas-filled bulb is configured such that the pulsed light ignites a pulse plasma in a breakdown region of the gas bulb and the sustaining light sustains a CW plasma in a CW plasma region of the gas bulb, thereby emitting a high brightness light from the gas bulb, where the gas-filled bulb is positioned between the output of the pump laser and the pump input of the Q-switched laser crystal such that the CW plasma absorbs the pump light quenching the pulsed light generated by the Q-switched laser crystal.

A method of operating a q-switch RE,XAB laser includes: providing a pump bias current to a pump source, the pump source directed to an RE:XAB gain medium, the RE:XAB gain medium within a resonator cavity, where X is selected from Ca, Lu, Yb, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Ga, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, and where RE is selected from Lu, Y, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Pr, Tm, Cr, Ho, with a bias current level below a lasing threshold of the RE:XAB gain medium; providing a pump pulse to the gain medium, the pump pulse of the lasing threshold of the RE:XAB gain medium, the pump pulse causing the RE:XAB gain medium to emit a laser pulse; and reducing the pump bias current to at least below the gain medium lasing threshold, the combination of the pump bias, the pump pulse, and the pump reduction having a current profile.

A passive mode-locked laser method and system, the system comprising a nonlinear optical loop comprising a resonant nonlinear element, coupled to an amplification section by a beam splitter, the beam splitter splitting a light beam from the amplification section into light beams propagating in opposite directions around the nonlinear optical loop, the resonant nonlinear element acting as both a nonlinear element and a narrow bandwidth filter for the laser system, allowing mode-locking operation of the system on a single resonance of the resonant nonlinear element.

In one embodiment, a lidar system includes a self-Raman laser that includes a Raman-active gain medium and a Q-switch. The self-Raman laser is configured to: produce Q-switched pulses of light at a lasing wavelength of the self-Raman laser; Raman-shift, in the Raman-active gain medium, at least a portion of the Q-switched pulses to produce Raman-shifted pulses of light, where the Raman-shifted pulses have a Raman-shifted wavelength that is longer than the lasing wavelength; and emit at least a portion of the Raman-shifted pulses. The lidar system further includes a scanner configured to scan the emitted pulses of light across a field of regard and a receiver configured to detect at least a portion of the scanned pulses of light scattered by a target located a distance from the lidar system. The lidar system also includes a processor configured to determine the distance from the lidar system to the target.

A method and a system for pulsed excitation of a nonlinear medium for photon pair generation, he method comprising exciting a single narrow resonance of a nonlinear resonant element with a pulsed laser field, comprising embedding a nonlinear resonant element directly into an external laser cavity and locking the cavity modes.

A diode pumped solid state laser is provided which includes a ruby crystal optical gain medium and a high bandgap semiconductor laser diode (LD) or light emitting diode (LED) pump source to directly optically pump the gain medium. The high-bandgap semiconductor LD or LED is a semiconductor device whose chemical composition is chosen to provide output radiation at an approximate wavelength of 405 nm. The ruby crystal produces laser output at the relatively short wavelength of 694 nm.

Provided is a passive Q-switch laser device possessing a power density controller (15) making power density of excitation light from an excitation light source (14) equal to or greater than power density so that delay time required for reaching oscillation after start of excitation of a laser gain medium (12) becomes equal to or shorter than a laser upper energy level lifetime of the laser gain medium (12).

A surface-emitting laser array includes a plurality of light emitting parts. Each light emitting part includes a reflection mirror including aluminum gallium arsenide (Al.sub.xGa.sub.(1-x)As) where x is greater than 0.95 but less than or equal to 1; an active layer; and an electrode surrounding an emission region, from which laser light is emitted, the electrode covering a region between adjacent light emitting parts in the plurality of light emitting parts.

A passive mode-locked polarized laser including an oscillator, the oscillator including: a cavity; a pump source coupled to the cavity; an optical output coupler, and an optical output isolator. Also, a method for generating polarized pulsed light having a wavelength of about 2 m using the passive mode-locked polarized laser.