Patent ID: 7961764

Claim:
A pulse splitting apparatus comprising: a pulsed laser source that produces laser pulses at an input repetition rate and an input pulse power; and a pulse splitter that receives the laser pulses from the pulsed laser source and outputs a plurality of sub-pulses for each laser pulse from the pulsed laser source, wherein the sub-pulses have a repetition rate that is greater than the input repetition rate and at least two of the sub-pulses have power less than the input pulse power, wherein the pulse splitter comprises at least two different materials on either side of a partially-reflective interface with each of the different materials extending from the partially-reflective interface to an at least partly-reflecting surface and having different refractive indexes, wherein the sub-pulses travel through the at least two different materials such that each of the sub-pulses travel along different optical path lengths through the different materials to cause a temporal separation between each of the sub-pulses, wherein the optical path length depends on both the distance traveled through the material and the index of refraction of the material.