Q-spoil

The ruby laser line may be o broadened to ~ 1 Å if a Kerr Cell is used to Q-spoil the laser for short, high-power pulses.

Alternatively, the system can be adjusted to Q-spoil the modes, thereby providing a dark trace.

By properly choosing the parameters, the diffracted beam can be deflected out of the laser resonant cavity, thereby providing an energy loss which is sufficient to Q-spoil the cavity.