Single pulse selection from a cw mode-locked laser

low cost, high performance single pulse switch-out system based on the high speed Pockels cell shutter, is presented, The circuit uses commonly available fast transistor transistor logic circuit elements for control logic and chains of bipolar junction transistors 2N2222A connected in avalanche mode for high-voltage switching of the Pockels cell. The system provides high contrast ratio pulses free from amplitude and timing jitter, and has been tested for more than 50 000 000 shots, (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)02503-9].