Abstract: The invention provides a method and apparatus for generating high pulse energy, short optical pulses having relatively high contrast. The system comprises a diode laser to seed a compact diode pumped amplifier, and comprises pulse shaping and cleaning elements to achieve relatively high energies and high contrast. The system is not locked to a fixed repetition rate as it is controlled by an electronic trigger. The system of the invention comprises a selectively triggered pulse source (asynchronous) which is coupled to pulse amplifying/pulse shaping means, which is coupled to pulse cleaning means, which is further coupled to a chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system.