Genetic drive of a laser

Direct production of laser output pulses with arbitrary shapes can be extended to the high-frequency domain by use of optimal driving of the pump power. Genetic algorithms allow us to design the optimal time evolutions of the pump power to counteract the detrimental effect of relaxation oscillations. The method is demonstrated on a Nd3+:YVO4 laser and allows us to produce, e.g., triangular pulses at rates 20 times faster than for proportional modulation.