Wouldn't fiber amplifiers solve the problem of electron-limited amplification?
The size of these things are a problem, but it seems to me that they are still more practical then, say, gas lasers.
As you surely know (just stating this as "general info") Erbium doped fiber amplifiers are a special kind of fiber, where erbium atoms mediate transfer of energy from an optical "pump" signal to the signal that needs amplification. This is a purely optical operation, save for the state change in the erbium atoms. But shouldn't this provide as fast response as the gas laser proposed in another thread of the discussion?
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As you surely know (just stating this as "general info") Erbium doped fiber amplifiers are a special kind of fiber, where erbium atoms mediate transfer of energy from an optical "pump" signal to the signal that needs amplification. This is a purely optical operation, save for the state change in the erbium atoms. But shouldn't this provide as fast response as the gas laser proposed in another thread of the discussion?