What is the term that refers to the time it takes for a laser to release energy and is crucial in determining pulse duration?

The term that refers to the time it takes for a laser to release energy and is crucial in determining pulse duration is thermal relaxation time. This concept is important in laser physics because it directly relates to how long the tissue or material can effectively absorb the energy from a laser pulse before it begins to dissipate this energy as heat or through other processes.

In practice, thermal relaxation time affects the design and application of laser treatments because a shorter relaxation time means that the tissue needs to be treated differently compared to tissues with longer relaxation times. When pulse duration is too long relative to the thermal relaxation time, there can be an increase in thermal injury to the surrounding structures. Therefore, understanding thermal relaxation helps clinicians optimize laser settings for effective and safe treatments.