Enhancement of solid-state laser performance by use of a multipulse pumping technique

A technique has been developed for improving the performance and flexibility of solid-state lasers pumped by kHz pulse rate sources by utilizing the typically long upper state lifetimes of these materials. This technique, named `pulse stacking' involves accumulating several consecutive pump pulses in the solid state medium and Q switching at a correspondingly reduced rate. The subsequent Q-switched laser output has increased peak power and shorter pulsewidth than with single pulse pumping as the laser is further above threshold. Not only can pulse stacking be advantageous when the pump pulse energy is near threshold but the higher powers are useful for more efficient nonlinear frequency conversion of the output.