High power laser pulses with voltage controlled durations of 400 - 1000 ps.

We report on the generation and amplification of pulses with pulse widths of 400 - 1000 ps at 1064 nm. For pulse generation an ultra-fast semiconductor modulator is used that modulates a cw-beam of a DFB diode laser. The pulse lengths could be adjusted by the use of a voltage control. The pulses were amplified in a solid state Nd:YVO4 regenerative amplifier to an average power of up to 47.7 W at 100 - 816 kHz.