Patent ID: 7567594
Filing Date: 2009-07-28
Classification: H01S

Abstract:
1. A Q-switched laser comprising: a) a resonant cavity, containing therein a gain medium; b) a pump source for increasing an optical gain within the gain medium to produce a primary optical circulating power at a fundamental optical frequency with a cavity round trip time within the resonant cavity; c) a signal generator producing a gate signal having a gate width, and modulated at a pulse repetition frequency; d) an optical switch within the resonant cavity, responsive to the gate signal received from the signal generator to change the optical switch from a high loss state to a low loss state for a duration of the gate width for producing a primary optical pulse with a primary optical pulse width; e) a first nonlinear coupler within the resonant cavity for converting a portion of the primary optical circulating power into a first converted optical power at a second harmonic of the fundamental optical frequency, f) an output coupler for coupling the first converted optical power out of the resonant cavity.