Patent ID: 8411710

Claim:
A laser apparatus comprising: a seed light source capable of outputting pulsed light as seed light; a pumping source which outputs CW light as pump light; an optical amplification section which receives the pump light and the seed light and amplifies the seed light; a pulse modulator which modulates the seed light source into an operation state of either a repetitive pulse operation state or a CW operation state; a pump power controller which adjusts a power of the pump light fed to the optical amplification section; and a main controller which outputs a signal to indicate a timing of control in the pulse modulator and the pump power controller, wherein, based on a timing of the signal output from the main controller, the pump power controller decreases the power of the pump light output from the pumping source to below a predetermined power in a duration in which the pulse modulator maintains the seed light source in the repetitive pulse operation state, prior to a switching timing of the seed light from the pulsed light to CW light at a light entrance end of the optical amplification section.