Pulse pickers

for Yb, Nd, and Ti:Sapphire lasers

Pulse pickers are optical devices that work as high-speed optical gates. Electro-optic pulse pickers are based on the Pockels effect, which enables the rapid control of polarization of light pulses by applying a carefully timed, fast high-voltage signal to a birefringent crystal.

Applications

Selection of single laser pulses from a pulse train
Lowering pulse repetition rate of mode-locked lasers
Seeding and cavity dumping in regenerative amplifiers
Q-switching
Pulse cleaning in chirped pulse amplification
Pulse slicing
Micromachining and material processing
Time-resolved spectroscopy and imaging

Advantages

Single-box optical head with complete prealigned optical scheme
Built-in Faraday isolator to prevent mode-locking breakdown
Adjustable to any input polarization (half-wave plate included)
4-channel delay generator with locking and timing electronics
Compatible with most commercial mode-locked laser oscillators
Optional core version with a Pockels cell and built-in high-voltage driver for OEM integration

PP-S series pulse pickers are designed to select individual laser pulses from a high-frequency laser train.

Single laser pulse extracted with PP-S (dumped signal is shown)

PP-A series pulse pickers generate a quasi-rectangular optical gate window of adjustable width to control femtosecond regenerative amplifiers or Q-switched lasers, or to form bursts of laser pulses.

µs-width gate created with PP-A (dumped signal is shown)

Specifications

Gate window

Maximum output

repetition rate

Rise/Fall time

(at 10/90% levels)

Gate window width

(FWHM)

EO crystal

Optical scheme

Wavelength

Clear aperture

Contrast ratio

Input polarization

Output polarization

Transmission

Optical isolation

Cooling

Input train repetition rate

Triggering

Delay resolution

PP-S

Short bell-shaped, fixed

1, 2, 4, 10, 200 kHz

(up to 1 MHz upon request)

<4 ns for 2/4 kHz

<5 ns for 1/10 kHz

<12 ns for 200 kHz

<8 ns for 2/4 kHz, fixed

<15 ns for 1/10 kHz, fixed

<25 ns for 200 kHz, fixed

DKDP/BBO

Quarter-wave

800, 1030, 1064 nm (other wavelengths upon request)

2.5, 3.5 mm for BBO

4.5 mm for DKDP

6 or 8 mm for DKDP without Faraday isolator

>700:1 for DKDP

>800:1 for BBO

Linear, arbitrary

Linear, vertical

>85% for complete setup

>98% for Pockels cell only

>30 dB

Passive at 1/2/4 kHz

Water cooling at >10 kHz

30 .. 100 MHz

Internal / External / Manual

250 ps, 4 independent channels

PP-A

Quasi-rectangular, adjustable

1, 10, 200 kHz

(up to 1 MHz upon request)

<5 ns for 1/10 kHz

<12 ns for 200 kHz

20 ns .. 1 µs for 1/10 kHz

100 ns .. 2 µs for 200 kHz

BBO (DKDP upon request)

Specifications

Configurations and versions

Turnkey configuration

OEM configuration

Dimensions and appearance

Click to enlarge