Pulse shaper for an electro-optically Q-switched seeded laser

Claim 1

In a seeded electro-optically Q-switched slave laser: optical resonator means for resonating optical energy therein; a laser gain medium disposed within said optical resonator means for imparting gain to a resonant mode of oscillation of said optical resonator means; electro-optical Q-switch means disposed within said optical resonator means for switching-on the excited resonator mode of said optical resonator means; seed means for injecting single-mode seed optical radiation of a wavelength of a resonant mode of said optical resonator means into said optical resonator means for causing said optical resonator means to resonate at the wavelength of said injected single-mode optical radiation; pulser means for pulsing ON said Q-switch means with a pulsed flow of current to develop a pulse voltage waveform in the Q-switch means for injecting the single-mode seed optical radiation into said optical resonator for exciting a resonant mode thereof and for allowing build-up of a resonant mode of oscillation within said optical resonator means; said pulser means including a saturable core inductor connected in series with the pulsed flow of current to said Q-switched means for causing the developed pulse voltage waveform to have an initially reduced rate of change to reduce unwanted Fourier frequency components of the seed optical radiation in said optical resonator, whereby enhanced single-mode operation of the slave laser is obtained.