Patent ID: 7356053

Claim:
A laser defining a cavity, the cavity housing a proximal reflective surface, a distal reflective surface, a beam pathway therebetween, and, along the beam pathway, a solid-state laser medium, a source of pulsed energy for energizing the laser medium, means for providing an energy output from the cavity, and a beam-limiting element, the laser comprising: a passive negative feedback (PNF) element arranged along the beam pathway; and a saturable absorber (SA) element arranged along the beam pathway for Q-switching the laser, said SA element having an absorption recovery time which is longer than an output pulse duration, wherein a location of the SA element is variable so that the SA element can be positioned between different pairs of other components of the laser and wherein the output pulse duration can be varied by varying location of the SA element between the different pairs of the other components of the laser.