Patent ID: 8873594

Claim:
A pulsed laser system, comprising: a signal source; a stretcher temporally stretching an output of said source; a fiber amplifier; a compressor configured to compress an output of said amplifier; an AOM selecting output pulses from said amplifier; wherein each of said signal source, said stretcher, said fiber amplifier, said AOM and said compressor comprise a pre-tested module, and said system is configured with at least said signal source, said stretcher, said fiber amplifier and said AOM optically connected via fiber splices; at least one tap unit within or between ones of said modules, including means for picking off a portion of said signal for measurement of an optical pulse characteristic within or between said modules, wherein said at least one tap unit provides a small signal output to a diagnostic means, said small signal output being provided during manufacturing or service of said pulsed laser system; and an attenuator module disposed between said signal source and said stretcher, said attenuator controlling an amplitude of a pulse emitted from said source so as to prevent non-linear effects within said stretcher from altering a pulse spectrum.