A passively, Q-switched laser is described. The laser may operate at an eye-safe lasing wavelength of 1.34 microns and use a gain element of Nd:YVO.sub.4 and a saturable absorber element of V:YAG with a space separating the gain element and saturable absorber element. The Q-switched laser is pumped by a grating stabilized laser diode. The laser may be used in laser ranging applications.

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 monolithic nonplanar ring oscillator (NPRO) laser with a large piezo-electric tuning range and high frequency slew rate, denoted as a μNPRO, is described. A tuning range of 3.5 GHz with 192 volts applied, corresponding to a tuning coefficient of 18.2 MHz/volt was experimentally demonstrated. This performance was achieved by making the solid-state gain element small, with a small distance between a piezo-electric element bonded to the solid-state gain element and a first lase plane in the solid-state gain element. The entire nonplanar ring lasing path within the solid-state gain element may lie within the half of the solid-state gain element closest to the bonded piezo-electric element. This large frequency modulation span and wide frequency modulation bandwidth, combined with unsurpassed coherence and high power, make this an attractive laser for frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LIDAR.

The present disclosure describes an optical waveguide provided with an incident side reflection film and an emission side reflection film to resonate light incident via the incident side reflection film and formed to penetrate from the incident side reflection film to the emission side reflection film for propagating resonated light. The disclosure also includes a substrate to which the optical waveguide is formed from a top surface thereof and a first protection member and a second protection member formed with a material corresponding to a material of the substrate, wherein the first protection member and the second protection member are arranged on the optical waveguide such that one end facet of the first protection member forms an identical plane with a first end facet of the substrate including an optical incident end.

A device for the generation of ultrashort pulses, wherein an oscillator is formed by: a first and a second non-overlapping transmission band-pass filter, which can serve as reflecting end element of the oscillator; optically transparent means with non-linear Kerr coefficient χ.sup.(3) different from zero configured to achieve a spectral broadening by self-phase modulation of the signal transiting through these means; an optical waveguide that produces a positive gain; a node configured to receive a trigger signal designed to activate the operation of the oscillator; a trigger signal generating device comprising: a laser source, for example a microchip, configured to generate a laser pulse, preferably with a minimum bandwidth, having a duration of hundreds of ps, up to the ns; a coupling system designed to introduce the pulse of the trigger laser into a waveguide made of an optically transparent material characterised by a non-linear Kerr coefficient χ.sup.(3) different from zero, which is configured to produce two distinct effects in order to spectrally broaden the pulse of the trigger laser, and precisely: a) self-phase modulation four-wave mixing; the output of the waveguide supplies the trigger signal to the node. The pulses produced by the oscillator typically have a duration of the order of the picosecond and are easily reduced to the Fourier limit of circa 100 femtoseconds by means of a dispersive device.

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.

In accordance with an example embodiment, a laser arrangement is provided, the laser arrangement comprising a light source for generating light output; a collimator assembly for collimating the light output from the light source into a pump beam; an optical resonator assembly for generating pulsed output beam based on the pump beam directed thereat; and a beam displacement assembly for laterally shifting the pump beam to adjust the position at which the pump beam meets a surface of the optical resonator assembly.

A laser device according to one embodiment includes a laser light source configured to output pulsed laser light L1 and a pulse width control unit configured to amplify the pulsed laser light output from the laser light source, change a pulse width of the pulsed laser light, and output the pulsed laser light. The pulse width control unit includes a first laser amplifier configured to amplify the pulsed laser light and a pulse waveform manipulation unit disposed between the first laser amplifier and the laser light source and configured to manipulate a pulse waveform of the pulsed laser light.

An electrodeless laser-driven light source includes a laser that generates a CW sustaining light. A pump laser generates pump light. A Q-switched laser crystal receives the pump light generated by the pump laser and generates pulsed laser light at an output in response to the generated pump light. A first optical element projects the pulsed laser light along a first axis to a breakdown region in a gas-filled bulb comprising an ionizing gas. A second optical element projects the CW sustaining light along a second axis to a CW plasma region in the gas-filled bulb comprising the ionizing gas. A detector detects plasma light generated by a CW plasma and generates a detection signal at an output. A controller generates control signals that control the pump light to the Q-switched laser crystal so as to extinguish the pulsed laser light within a time delay after the detection signal exceeds a threshold level.

A kind of all-solid-state high-power slab laser based on phonon band-edge emission, which is comprised of a pumping source, a focusing system, a resonant cavity and a self-frequency-doubling crystal; the said self-frequency-doubling crystal is a Yb-doped RECOB crystal cut into slab shape along the direction of the crystal's maximum effective nonlinear coefficient of its non-principal plane; by changing the cutting direction of the crystal, the phase matching of different wavelengths is realized, thus realizing laser output at the band of 560-600 nm; the said pumping source is a diode laser matrix with a wavelength of 880 nm-980 nm; the input cavity mirror and the output cavity mirror are coated with films to obtain laser output at the band of 560-600 nm; the two large faces of the said self-frequency-doubling crystal is cooled by heat sink and located between the input cavity mirror and the output cavity mirror.