Controlled dumping of pulses of laser radiation ranging from MIR to the FIR by means of optical semiconductor switching

A simple method to produce sub-ns of laser radiation with wavelength ranging from middle infrared (MIR) to millimeter(MM) is experimentally demonstrated. The systemoperates with a single OSS (opticalsemiconductor switching) driven by a ns Nd laser. Pulse control is produced by varying the distance of a mirror from an OSS used as a cavity dumping. The effectiveness of this sub-ns MM pulse generation is larger than the one observed in another scheme. pulses with 500ps FWHM and 15W power were produced at 2.65mm with a time compression compared to the 2ns FWHM of the 1.06 driving laser.