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 (e.g., a Pockels cell) 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.

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.

The present application discloses a cavity dumped low repetition rate infrared tunable femtosecond laser source configured to produce pulses of 200 femtoseconds or less with a peak power of four megawatts or more for use in a variety of applications including multi-photon microscopy.

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 a sub-nanosecond round trip time.

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 a sub-nanosecond round trip time.

A pulsed third-harmonic laser system includes a pulsed laser, an extra-cavity nonlinear crystal, and an intracavity nonlinear crystal. The pulsed laser generates fundamental laser pulses and couples out a portion of each fundamental laser pulse out of the laser resonator to undergo second-harmonic-generation in the extra-cavity nonlinear crystal. Resulting second-harmonic laser pulses are directed back into the laser resonator and mixes with the fundamental laser pulses in the intracavity nonlinear crystal to generate third-harmonic laser pulses. The pulsed third-harmonic laser system thus maintains a non-zero output coupling efficiency regardless of the efficiency of the second-harmonic-generation stage, while the third-harmonic-generation stage benefits from the intracavity power of the fundamental laser pulses.

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 (e.g., a Pockels cell) positioned along the optical axis of the resonator.