Patent ID: 7180918

Claim:
A method of operating a laser to obtain an output pulse of laser radiation having a single wavelength, the laser including a resonator with an output coupler, a gain medium positioned inside the resonator and a pump source, the method comprising: inducing an intracavity loss into the resonator by setting a reflectivity of the output coupler, the loss, transmitted through the output coupler, being an amount that prevents oscillation during a time that energy from the pump source is being stored in the gain medium; building up gain with energy from the pump source in the gain medium until formation of a single-frequency relaxation oscillation pulse in the resonator; and reducing the intracavity loss induced in the resonator upon the detection of the relaxation oscillation pulse by increasing the reflectivity of the output coupler before the relaxation oscillation pulse ends, so that built-up gain stored in the gain medium is output as transmission through the output coupler from the resonator as an output pulse at the single frequency.