A PLASMA SHUTTER TO GENERATE A SYNCHRONIZED SUBNANOSECOND PULSE FOR OPTICAL PROBING OF LASER-PRODUCED PLASMAS

A simple and reliable technique to temporally shorten a multinanosecond Nd:glass laser pulse to less than nanosecond duration at the second harmonic wavelength is described in this article. Using this technique a short probe pulse synchronized with the main laser was generated for optical probing of laser-produced plasmas. Experiments reported were conducted with a Nd:glass laser of wavelength 1.06-mu-m and of 20 ns duration to yield a temporally shortened pulse of duration less than a nanosecond at a wavelength of 0.53-mu-m. This technique would be particularly useful and give better results for shorter wavelength lasers (UV and VUV) for which the conventional techniques of pulse slicing are sophisticated as well as add to the expense and complexity of the laser system.