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 Cr:YAG sintered body including Al, Y, Cr, Ca, Mg, Si, and O, and component contents in the sintered body satisfying conditional expressions of 1) to 3) below, provided in the Conditional expression, each chemical symbol represents a component content (atppm).

|(Y+Ca)/(Al+Cr+Si+Mg)−0.6|<0.001;  1)

0≤(Ca+Mg)−(Cr+Si)≤50 atppm; and  2)

50≤Si≤500 atppm  3)

The embodiment of the present invention is to provide a Cr:YAG sintered body which exhibits high transparency and has a high Cr.sup.4+ conversion ratio, and its production method.

A method and apparatus for characterizing an optical element. The optical element is part of a laser and is mounted on a translation stage to scan the optical element transverse to an intracavity laser beam. A performance characteristic of the laser is recorded as a function of position of the optical element.

To prevent an output decrease of laser light due to impurities formed in a Q switch. A laser machining device includes a Q-switch housing section configured by housing a Q switch and a first mirror and a wavelength converting section including a housing in which a transmission window section capable of transmitting a fundamental wave is formed, the wavelength converting section being configured by airtightly housing, with an internal space surrounded by the housing, at least a first wavelength conversion element, a second wavelength conversion element, and a second mirror. A resonator forming a resonant optical path passing through the transmission window section is configured by the first mirror in the Q-switch housing section and the second mirror in the wavelength converting section.

A device and a method for measuring thermal load caused by excited state absorption in laser gain crystal are disclosed. Thermal focal lengths on the tangential and sagittal planes of the laser gain crystal are obtained by obtaining the threshold when the pump power is decreased, the optimal operating point, and cavity parameters of the single-frequency laser. Individual ABCD matrices of the laser gain crystal on the tangential plane and the sagittal plane are obtained based on thermal focal length. The thermal load corresponding to the threshold when the pump power is decreased, the ESA thermal load corresponding to the threshold when the pump power is decreased, and the ESA thermal load at the optimal operating point are obtained

A device and a method for measuring a thermal load caused by energy transfer upconversion in a laser gain crystal. Increasing the pump power multiple times so that the power meter obtains multiple thresholds for a single-frequency laser; obtaining an average pump threshold of the output laser; obtaining cavity parameters of the single-frequency laser; obtaining thermal focal lengths on the tangential and sagittal planes of the laser gain crystal inside the single-frequency laser; obtaining individual ABCD matrices of the laser system on the tangential and the sagittal planes; obtaining a thermal load at the threshold based on the ABCD transfer matrix of the laser gain crystal on the tangential plane, the ABCD transfer matrix of the laser gain crystal on the sagittal plane, and the average pump threshold of the laser system; obtaining a thermal load caused by ETU at threshold based on the thermal load at the threshold.

To appropriately change an output of laser light without deteriorating laser characteristics. A control section of a laser machining device controls, when a target output is larger than a predetermined threshold, an output of laser light by changing a driving current supplied to an excitation light source and, on the other hand, controls, when the target output is equal to or smaller than the threshold, the output of the laser light by changing a duty ratio of a Q switch while keeping the driving current supplied to the excitation light source substantially fixed.

To prevent an output decrease of laser light due to impurities that could be formed in a guide-light emitting device or an imaging device. A laser-light guiding section includes a transmission window section, an optical component disposed to cause an optical path of the UV laser light emitted from the laser-light output section and an optical path of transmitted light transmitted through the transmission window section to cross, and a sealing member in which the transmission window section is provided, the sealing member configuring a sealed space for airtightly housing the optical component. At least one of a guide-light emitting device configured to emit guide light for visualizing a scanning position of the UV laser light toward the transmission window section and an imaging device configured to receive light for imaging a workpiece via the transmission window section is disposed on the outer side of the sealed space.

An all solid-state laser light source device comprises a diode-pump laser and the following devices sequentially arranged in an optical path direction of laser light: a coupling optical fiber, a coupling lens assembly, and a resonant cavity. An anisotropic laser crystal is provided in the resonant cavity. Absorption spectra of the anisotropic laser crystal comprise a π polarization absorption spectrum and a σ polarization absorption spectrum. Each of the π polarization absorption spectrum and the σ polarization absorption spectrum has a peak pump region and a left pump region and a right pump region arranged on either side of the peak pump region. Pump light outputted by diode-pump laser has a wavelength λ falling within the left pump region or the right pump region.

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.