Described herein are isolated ring cavities that have refractive and heat-generating components physically separated and mechanically held by flexure mounts that are adapted to function in combination with the physically separated structure to moderate the thermal expansion effects of the heat generated by the refractive and other heat-generating elements (e.g., gain element) of the optical cavity. The flexure mounts may be configured as thinned portions of connective elements, reducing the effects of thermal expansion of the baseplate and allowing a thermal isolation from the baseplate. Multiple flexure mounts may be arranged to minimize further the effects of thermal expansion of the baseplate.

A liquid crystal based optical deflector includes a light source array configured to generate a laser beam, an optical deflector including a plurality of liquid crystal cells, which transmit the laser beam, the optical deflector configured to deflect a transmission path of the laser beam depending on a gradually increased voltage profile applied to the plurality of liquid crystal cells, an optics assembly configured to scan the laser beam deflected by the optical defector in a horizontal direction, and a controller configured to adjust the voltage profile applied to the plurality of liquid crystal cells.

A system for generating extreme ultraviolet light, in which a target material inside a chamber is irradiated with a laser beam to be turned into plasma, includes a first laser apparatus configured to output a first laser beam, a second laser apparatus configured to output a pedestal and a second laser beam, and a controller connected to the first and second laser apparatuses and configured to cause the first laser beam to be outputted first, the pedestal to be outputted after the first laser beam, and the second laser beam having higher energy than the pedestal to be outputted after the pedestal.

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.

Provided is a swept light source including one end surface coupled to a wavelength filter constituted of a diffraction grating and an end mirror via a light deflector and another end surface including a gain medium facing an output coupling mirror and which configures a laser cavity between the end mirror and the output coupling mirror, wherein a drive voltage having an AC voltage on which a DC bias voltage is superimposed is output from a control voltage source of the light deflector to an electrode pair of an electro-optic crystal, light is radiated from a light emitter to the electro-optic crystal, and incident light from the gain medium incident along an optical axis perpendicular to a direction of an electric field formed by the control voltage is deflected in a direction parallel to the electric field, so that wavelength sweeping is performed.

Disclosed herein is a single pulse laser apparatus that includes: a resonator having a first mirror, a second mirror, a gain medium, an electro-optic modulator (EOM) configured to perform single pulse switching, and an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) configured to perform mode-locking; a photodiode configured to measure a laser beam oscillated in the resonator; a synchronizer configured to convert an electrical signal, which is generated by measuring the laser beam, into a transistor-transistor logic (TTL) signal; a delay unit configured to set a delay time for the TTL signal to synchronize the EOM and the AOM and output a trigger TTL signal according to the delay time; an AOM driver configured to input the trigger TTL signal to the AOM that performs mode-locking and drive the AOM; and an EOM driver configured to input the trigger TTL signal to the EOM that performs single pulse switching and drive the EOM.

A driving circuit is a circuit selectively outputting one of a staircase wave and a square wave from an output terminal, to drive a capacitive load, and includes a first power source supplying a constant voltage VH, a first FET connected between the output terminal and the first power source, a first transformer in which an output side coil is connected to a gate of the first FET, a first input terminal connected to an input side coil of the first transformer via a capacitive element, a second power source supplying a constant voltage VL, a second FET connected between the output terminal and the second power source, a second transformer in which an output side coil is connected to a gate of the second FET, and a second input terminal connected to an input side coil of the second transformer via a capacitive element.

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.

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 method generates laser pulses by varying a Q-factor in a resonator. The method includes generating the laser pulses by controlling an optical modulator with a control signal for switching over between a first operating state of the optical modulator for generating a first Q-factor in the resonator and a second operating state of the optical modulator for generating a second Q-factor in the resonator. The second Q-factor is different than the first Q-factor. In order to generate a sequence of the laser pulses in which first laser pulses alternate with second laser pulses different than the first laser pulses, the optical modulator is controlled differently in each case alternately with the control signal for generating a respective first laser pulse, of the first laser pulses, and a respective second laser pulse, of the second laser pulses.