Q-Switches and external switching devices

  • Walter Koechner
Chapter
Part of the Springer Series in Optical Sciences book series (SSOS, volume 1)

Abstract

The most important device to be discussed in this chapter is the laser Q-switch. This device, located inside the laser resonator, drastically changes the power and temporal characteristic of the beam obtained from a laser oscillator. Other switches employed outside the resonator include optical gates, which are used to select one pulse from a train of pulses or to slice a small portion from a larger pulse, and optical isolators, which are employed to eliminate feedback between amplifier stages.

Keywords

Peak Power Diffraction Efficiency Saturable Absorber Population Inversion Photon Density 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1976

Authors and Affiliations

  • Walter Koechner
    • 1
  1. 1.Korad Division of Hadron, Inc.Santa MonicaUSA

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