Editing Q-switching (section)

{{Short description|Laser pulsing technique}}
'''Q-switching''', sometimes known as '''giant pulse formation''' or '''Q-spoiling''',<ref name="Früngel2014">{{cite book|last1=Früngel|first1=Frank B. A.|title=Optical Pulses - Lasers - Measuring Techniques|date=2014|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=9781483274317|pages=192|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pkaoBQAAQBAJ&q=Q-spoiling&pg=PA192|access-date=1 February 2015}}</ref> is a technique by which a [[laser]] can be made to produce a pulsed output beam. The technique allows the production of light pulses with extremely high ([[gigawatt]]) peak [[Power (physics)|power]], much higher than would be produced by the same laser if it were operating in a [[continuous wave]] (constant output) mode. Compared to [[mode locking]], another technique for pulse generation with lasers, Q-switching leads to much lower pulse repetition rates, much higher pulse energies, and much longer pulse durations. The two techniques are sometimes applied together.

Q-switching was first proposed in 1958 by [[Gordon Gould]],<ref name=30yr>{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Nick |title=LASER: The inventor, the Nobel laureate, and the thirty-year patent war |year=2000 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0-684-83515-0 }} p. 93.</ref> and independently discovered and demonstrated in 1961 or 1962 by R.W. Hellwarth and F.J. McClung at [[Hughes Research Laboratories]] using electrically switched [[Kerr cell]] shutters in a [[ruby laser]].<ref name=mcclung62>{{cite journal | last1 = McClung | first1 = F.J. | last2 = Hellwarth | first2 = R.W. | year = 1962 | title = Giant optical pulsations from ruby | journal = [[Journal of Applied Physics]] | volume = 33 | issue = 3| pages = 828–829 | doi=10.1063/1.1777174|bibcode = 1962JAP....33..828M }}</ref> Optical nonlinearities such as Q-switching were fully explained by [[Nicolaas Bloembergen]], who won the [[Nobel Prize]] in 1981 for this work.<ref name="maiman18">{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-61940-8|title=The Laser Inventor|series=Springer Biographies|year=2018|isbn=978-3-319-61939-2}}</ref><ref name="bloembergen11">{{Cite journal|title=The Birth of Nonlinear Optics|author=Bloembergen, Nicolaas|year=2011|journal=Nonlinear Optics|pages=NWA2 |doi=10.1364/nlo.2011.nwa2|isbn=978-1-55752-915-2 }}</ref><ref name="dimaria67">{{Cite journal|last1=DeMaria|first1=A. J.|last2=Stetser|first2=D. A.|last3=Glenn|first3=W. H.|date=1967-06-23|title=Ultrashort Light Pulses|journal=Science|language=en|volume=156|issue=3782|pages=1557–1568|doi=10.1126/science.156.3782.1557|pmid=17797635 |bibcode=1967Sci...156.1557D |s2cid=27074052 |issn=0036-8075}}</ref><ref name="treacy68">{{Cite journal|last=Treacy|first=E.B.|date=1968|title=Compression of picosecond light pulses|journal=Physics Letters A|language=en|volume=28|issue=1|pages=34–35|doi=10.1016/0375-9601(68)90584-7|bibcode=1968PhLA...28...34T }}</ref>