Creating nanosecond pulses from a CW laser source Experimental setup question.
If anyone aware of a technique to create pulses of several nanoseconds at a around 10Hz repetition rate from a CW laser source?
 A: You could use an electro-optic modulator. These don't need kV supplies, can have very fast rise/fall times, and can be fully programmable by using a digital delay generator (these can also be triggered optically for extremely good accuracy, preventing timing drift between the delay generator and whatever source you're using). You usually need the following:
1) Electro-optic modulator.
2) DC power supply (20 V or so).
3) RF amplifier.
4) Delay generator.
Using a delay generator (such as the Stanford Research Systems DG645) you can create modulated RF signals with a very wide range of waveforms which can then be used to open and close the electro-optic modulator to transfer the RF waveform to an amplitude modulation on the CW laser output.
This will not be cheap, though.
A: I once worked with a laser technician who was a specialist with the high voltage supplies and circuitry for pockels cells, he told me klystrons were used to produce the very short high voltage pulses to drive the cells. Might not be easy to get. Maybe a rotating mirror to sweep a beam quickly past a thin slot? 
