Patent ID: 8072871

Claim:
A short-pulse light-source device comprising: a semiconductor laser to emit a laser beam in the form of a singular output beam having such light intensity characteristics as to include a pulsed singular peak and a singular slope of a smaller light intensity than that of the pulsed singular peak, the laser beam being emitted in response to a drive pulse supplied in pulses of a predetermined singular voltage; a power supply circuit to acquire a gate signal containing a gate pulse indicative of a power supply timing, and to supply or cut power based on the gate pulse; a driving circuit to acquire a pulse signal containing a control pulse indicative of an emission timing of the laser beam from the semiconductor laser, and to generate, using the power supplied from the power supply circuit, a laser drive signal containing the drive pulse that depends on the control pulse, and supply the laser drive signal to the semiconductor laser; and a pulse signal generator to generate and supply the pulse signal to the driving circuit, and to generate the gate signal in such a manner that the gate pulse rises to include at least a rise time of the control pulse in the pulse signal, and supply the gate signal to the power supply circuit.