The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 28, 1995
Filed:
Mar. 04, 1994
John J Zayhowski, Pepperell, MA (US);
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for a passively Q-switched microlaser for producing high-peak-power pulses of light of extremely short duration are disclosed. The apparatus comprises a gain medium and saturable absorber disposed within a laser cavity. When the cavity is pumped, the saturable absorber prevents the onset of lasing until the inversion density within the cavity reaches a critical value. The length of the cavity, the material parameters, and the reflectivities of the mirrors are selected such that pulses of duration less than about 1 ns and of peak power in excess of about 10 kW are obtained. The invention has application in high-precision optical radar, nonlinear optics, micromachining, microsurgery, robotic vision, and other technologies requiring high-peak-power laser pulses of extremely short duration.