Presently available are devices which generate short laser pulses including a laser oscillator which generates a first laser pulse, an element to compress the pulse by reflecting the first laser pulse by stimulated Brillouin scattering into a laser pulse of a shorter temporal duration, and a primary ray path that includes the laser oscillator and the pulse compressing element and along which the first laser pulse travels from the laser oscillator to the pulse compressing element.
Such devices, known from prior art, normally make use of laser oscillators generating the first laser pulse with the temporal duration in the range of nanoseconds, most preferably in the range between approximately a few and and some tens of nanoseconds. Laser pulses generated in that way are shortened by one reflection cycle inside a pulse compressing element.
The shortcomings of these devices are that the temporal duration of the shortened or compressed pulse depends on the refractive medium inside the pulse compressing element and--in particular--the fact that there is no possibility to generate laser pulses of a predefined time duration.
Therefore, this invention has the underlying task to create a device and a process that opens up the possibility of generating laser pulses with a predefined time duration.