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.

An electrically tunable non-reciprocal phase shifter, an electrically tunable polarization filter, a NALM mode-locked laser and a Sagnac loop are provided. The electrically tunable non-reciprocal phase shifter includes a modulation crystal device, a birefringent crystal device, a Faraday rotator, and a fiber coupler. The phase shifter is configured to couple two beams of light to a fast axis and a slow axis of the modulation crystal device, respectively; and change a refractive index difference between the fast axis and the slow axis to introduce different phase delays for the two beams of the light, so as to control a non-reciprocal linear phase shift amount between the two beams of the light.

An electrically tunable non-reciprocal phase shifter, an electrically tunable polarization filter, a NALM mode-locked laser and a Sagnac loop are provided. The electrically tunable non-reciprocal phase shifter includes a modulation crystal device, a birefringent crystal device, a Faraday rotator, and a fiber coupler. The phase shifter is configured to couple two beams of light to a fast axis and a slow axis of the modulation crystal device, respectively; and change a refractive index difference between the fast axis and the slow axis to introduce different phase delays for the two beams of the light, so as to control a non-reciprocal linear phase shift amount between the two beams of the light.

A method and a laser for breaking through the limitation of fluorescence spectrum on laser wavelength is disclosed. The method includes: exciting electrons to a high energy level by pump light, and suppressing an oscillation of radiation light by laser cavity coating, using a laser resonance to enhance a transition probability of an electron-phonon coupling from the high energy level to a multi-phonon coupling level, so as to realize the emission and enhancement of breakthrough fluorescence spectrum and realize the radiation light oscillation, wherein the laser cavity includes an incident mirror, a folding mirror, a tuning element and an exit mirror arranged in sequence along an optical path direction, the laser gain medium is located between an incident mirror and a folding mirror in the laser resonator, and the tuning element is arranged in the laser cavity at a Brewster angle.

A passively, Q-switched laser operating at an eye safe wavelength of between 1.2 and 1.4 microns is described. The laser may operate at a lasing wavelength of 1.34 microns and use a gain element of Nd:YVO.sub.4 and a saturable absorber element of V:YAG. The position of the resonator axial mode spectrum relative to a gain peak of the gain element is controlled to yield desired characteristics in the laser output.

A single-frequency laser apparatus comprises a mirror and a volume Bragg grating (VBG) reflector defining a laser cavity therebetween and an optical gain material for emitting and amplifying an intra-cavity beam in the laser cavity. The optical gain material comprises a transition-metal doped crystal such as a crystal doped with transition-metal ions selected from one or more of Ti.sup.3+ ions, Cr.sup.2+ ions, Cr.sup.3+ ions or Cr.sup.4+ ions. A reflectivity spectrum of the VBG reflector and an optical length of the laser cavity are selected so that a beam output from the laser cavity is a single-frequency output beam and/or includes only one longitudinal mode of the laser cavity. The laser apparatus may provide a robust, compact, low cost, high-power wavelength adjustable (from approximately 650 to 950 nm), narrow linewidth (<100 kHz), single frequency laser source which is suitable for a wide range of applications from laser sensing, spectroscopy, and high precision frequency metrology sectors.

A device may include a first photodetector to generate a first current based on an optical power of an optical beam. The device may include a beam splitter to split a portion of the optical beam into a first beam and a second beam. The device may include a wavelength filter to filter the first beam and the second beam. The wavelength filter may filter the second beam differently than the first beam based on a difference between an optical path length of the first beam and an optical path length of the second beam through the wavelength filter. The device may include second and third photodetectors to respectively receive, after the wavelength filter, the first beam and the second beam and to generate respective second currents.

Brillouin fiber sensors can provide distributed measurements of parameters of interest over long distances in a fiber by measuring the Brillouin frequency shift as a function of position along the fiber. The Brillouin frequency shift may be determined, to within a small fraction of the Brillouin linewidth, by establishing a series of lasing modes that experience Brillouin amplification at discrete spatial locations in a test fiber. A linewidth narrowing and high intensity associated with the lasing transition enable precise measurements of the lasing frequency associated with each of the lasing modes. The Brillouin frequency may be determined based on the lasing frequency.

An intra-cavity doubled OPS-laser has a laser-resonator including a birefringent filter (BRF) for coarse wavelength-selection, and an optically nonlinear (ONL) crystal arranged for type-II frequency-doubling and fine wavelength-selection. Laser-radiation circulates in the laser-resonator at one of a range of fundamental wavelengths dependent on the resonator length. The ONL crystal has a transmission peak-wavelength dependent on the crystal temperature. Reflection of circulating radiation from the BRF is monitored. The reflection is at a minimum when the ONL crystal transmission-peak wavelength is at the circulating radiation wavelength. The temperature of the ONL crystal is selectively varied to maintain the monitored reflection at about a minimum.

A narrow band laser apparatus may include: a laser resonator; a pair of discharge electrodes; a power supply; a first wavelength measurement device configured to output a first measurement result; a second wavelength measurement device configured to output a second measurement result; and a control unit. The control unit calibrates the first measurement result, based on a difference between the second measurement result derived when the control unit controls the power supply to apply a pulsed voltage to the pair of discharge electrodes with a first repetition frequency and the second measurement result derived when the control unit controls the power supply to apply the pulsed voltage to the pair of discharge electrodes with a second repetition frequency, the second repetition frequency being higher than the first repetition frequency.