Patent ID: 7403550

Claim:
Laser apparatus comprising: a laser source providing optical pulses having a first wavelength and being temporally equispaced by a pulse-repetition period τ and delivered at a pulse-repetition frequency (PRF) equal to 1/τ; and a first optical delay loop arranged to receive the first-wavelength optical pulses and divide each thereof into first through M th replicas thereof with the replicas of each pulse being temporally spaced apart by τ/N±Δτ, where N is an integer equal to or greater than 1 and Δτ is about equal to or greater than the pulse-duration of the first-wavelength optical pulses, the optical delay loop being further arranged to deliver bursts of the pulse-replicas at a burst-repetition frequency equal to the PRF of the optical pulses multiplied by N, with each burst including replicas of different ones of the first-wavelength optical pulses.