Patent ID: 7286580

Claim:
A method of amplifying a laser pulse comprising: coupling a seed pulse into an optical cavity having a ring shaped optical path including an amplifying medium; phase reversing the pulse by SBS phase conjugation after one or more transits through the ring in which the pulse traverses the amplifying medium; coupling an output pulse out of the optical cavity after the pulse traverses the amplifying medium in an equal number of transits through the ring shaped optical path in an opposite direction; and controlling a pulse width of the output pulse by controlling a threshold of said SBS phase conjugation, wherein said phase reversing includes placing an SBS mirror system comprising a collimated SBS cell and a focused SBS cell in the cavity; and said controlling the pulse width includes diverting a controlled amount of energy from said pulse out of the cavity between the collimated SBS cell and the focused SBS cell to control said threshold.