Microlasers:

Daniel Guillot, Nanolase

The progressive replacement of gas lasers and flashlamp-pumped solid-state lasers by more efficient diode-pumped solid-state lasers started in laboratories more than a decade ago. Pumped with a 1-W CW diode laser, passively Q-switched microlasers produce short pulses (300 ps to 1.5 ns), high peak powers of up to 80 kW repetition rates between 2 and 50 kHz, and excellent beam quality (M2<1.05) in a single longitudinal mode. This new class of laser is used in many applications as quasi-CW or as a pulsed light source.