Control of the duration of output pulses from an Nd : YAG laser with a stimulated Brillouin scattering mirror

Methods for varying the duration of output pulses were proposed and impleme nted experimentally for lasers in the form of master oscillator-amplifier-s timulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) mirror systems. The conditions were fo und under which the introduction of losses into the radiation beam between the SBS mirror and the amplifier could alter considerably the pulse duratio n without a significant reduction in the output energy. The use of two diff erent SBS media made it possible to construct a laser with the pulse durati on variable from 6 to 40 ns at the expense of reducing the output energy by no more than 30%.