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Laser Pulse Pickers
Frequently Asked Questions
In simple terms, a Laser Pulse Picker is an electronically controlled optical switch. They are acousto-optic or electro-optic modulator devices used to select specified pulses of laser systems while blocking all the others.
As described in the answer to the question above, pulse pickers are used to extract a single pulse from a continuous and fast pulse train. Common applications include regenerative amplifier control, which is a process used to generate short yet strong pulses of laser light. Pulse picking is a common task in the laser industry, where engineers must resample the repetition rate of pulsed lasers.
A Laser Pulse Train is a regular sequence of pulses that may last over a long period of time. The repetition rate of these ultrashort pulses is typically 10MHz – 10GHz. All pulsed lasers generate some form of a pulse train. For example, an ultrafast amplified laser might generate a train of pulses that are separated from each other by 1/1000s of a second. In this case, we would say that the it generates a 1kHz pulse train.
The laser Pulse Picker will reduce a laser repetition rate by applying short voltage pulses to an electro-optical crystal, allowing control over the state of pulses in the pulse train. So the operation of a pulse picker is split into two key elements: the application of voltage pulses, and the synchronization or temporal alignment of this applied voltage with optical pulses.
Important properties include switching time (for high input repetition rates), max repetition rate, energy loss, optical bandwidth (for broadband pulses), chromatic dispersion, aperture, acceptance angle, and optical nonlinearity (for pulses with high peak powers).
The key parameters to study when selecting a laser pulse picker for your applications are the wavelength range, input frequency range, maximum insertion loss, input polarization, and maximum laser input power.
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