Word.ws English Dictionary

Q-switch

Q-switch noun: a device that causes Q-switching.

Noun

Q-switch (countable and uncountable, plural Q-switches)

  1. A device that causes Q-switching.
    • Around 60-100 W is required to deflect a 60 W beam and hence the Q-switch has to be cooled.2003, W. M. Steen, Kenneth Watkins, Laser Material Processing, page 29
    • The Q-switch was placed at the beam waist of the resonator as mentioned before.2009, Soviet Laser Physics - Volume 19, page 1404
    Synonyms:
    Q spoiler
  2. The process of Q-switching.
    • Also, the appearance of Q-switch and ultra-short pulse technology made the peak power improve greatly, and the efficiency of doubling reached 70-80%.2012, Jianquan Yao, Yuyue Wang, Nonlinear Optics and Solid-State Lasers
    • The general temporal evolution of the Q-switch is sketched in Fig. 4.2 for the case of an active Q-switch that acts on the internal cavity losses Λ.2014, Marc Eichhorn, Laser Physics: From Principles to Practical Work in the Lab, page 75

Verb

Q-switch (third-person singular simple present Q-switches, present participle Q-switching, simple past and past participle Q-switched)

  1. (transitive) To use a Q-switch on (a laser).
    • A variety of methods are available to Q-switch a fiber laser. Most of them are adaptations of those used to Q-switch bulk lasers.2001, Michel J.F. Digonnet, Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers
    • The ability to Q-switch this laser results in fast, intense pulses of red light that cannot be generated by other means.2011, Mark Csele, Fundamentals of Light Sources and Lasers, page 295

Examples of Q-switch in a sentence

  • The invention of the Q-switch quickly followed the invention of the laser discovered in 1961 and published in 1962 [3].2014, Detlev Ristau, Laser-Induced Damage in Optical Materials, page 3:
  • We see that the timer/controller contains a 10 Hz laser Q-switch signal repeated each 100 ms (the Q-switch pulse width is 100 μs, and the lasar pulse with is 10 ns).2018, Huabei Jiang, Photoacoustic Tomography, page 109:
  • In order to Q-switch an unpolarized laser system, such as Nd:YAG, the lower of the efficiency factors of a longitudinal device determines the extinction ratio of the device.2013, Walter Koechner, Solid-State Laser Engineering, page 505:

Synonyms of Q-switch

Forms of Q-switch

Noun
pluralQ-switches
Verb
third-person singular presentQ-switches
present participleQ-switching
past participleQ-switched
pastQ-switched

Origin of Q-switch

The Q stands for the quality factor of the resonator on the laser.

Questions about Q-switch

What does Q-switch mean?
Q-switch means a device that causes Q-switching.
How do you use Q-switch in a sentence?
The invention of the Q-switch quickly followed the invention of the laser discovered in 1961 and published in 1962 [3].
What part of speech is Q-switch?
Q-switch can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of Q-switch?
The plural of Q-switch is Q-switches.

Words near Q-switch in the dictionary

  1. Q-slurs
  2. Q-spoil
  3. Q-spoiled
  4. Q-spoiling
  5. Q-spoils
  6. Q-switch
  7. Q-switched
  8. Q-switches
  9. Q-switching
  10. q-tip
  11. q-tips

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Q-switch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Q-switch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/q-switch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.