Patent ID: 7288086

Claim:
A method of cutting or ablating hard tissue, comprising the following steps: providing a gain medium, a diode array, and an optical cavity; placing the gain medium and the diode array within the optical cavity so that the diode array is optically aligned to side pump the gain medium; activating the diode array to light pump the gain medium and generate at least one pulse of laser light having a full-width half-max range closer to a beginning than an end of the pulse, the laser light having a wavelength, pulse format, and power density suitable for cutting and ablating hard tissue and further having a wavelength which is highly absorbed by water; placing fluid into a volume in close proximity to the hard tissue; and directing pulses of the laser light into the volume in close proximity to the hard tissue to cause laser light to be highly absorbed by fluid in the volume and to effectuate the cutting or ablating of the hard tissue.