Dynamics of ultrashort pulse formation in a ruby laser with a passively switched electrooptical shutter

In an earlier paper, a relatively simple means was proposed to obtain intense ultrashort pulse (USP) trains in a ruby laser with a passively switched electro-optical shutter (PEOS). As was shown, at different stages in the process of laser generation, variation of almost all characteristics of radiation occurs: energy, power, contrast, and temporal structure, which all depend both on the parameters of the seed radiation, and, to a significant degree, on a series of other conditions - the activation time of the shutter, Q-switching range, and the ratio of primary and secondary resonator lengths. In this paper, the authors present the results of theoretical and experimental studies directed at determining the most optimum conditions of obtaining a series of intense high-contrast USP with variable radiation parameters in lasers with PEOS.