Pulsed lasers?

ok, ive been reading around the forums and stuff and have done some searches and im alittle perplexed as to how one would pulse a laser. I know that pulsing is quickly turning on and off the laser to achieve maximum mW output, but im confused as to how this is done. Im guessing with some sort of pulsing capacitor or an expensive pulse generator. My main question is though, is there an easy way to modify a diy driver for this, and if so how? my second question is, what sort of lasers can be pulsed?diode lasers, maybe a special kind? or gas lasers

Pulsing just makes the laser have a higher peek in power but really your average is just the same as CW. Basically its not worth it.

People on here just overdrive there lasers to get higher outputs.

--hydro15

If you wanted to do it, you could use a 555 IC

Thx, i think it might take a little tinkering to get this to work jus the way i would like, but w/e xD.
Atleast now i have a good starting point lol. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]