The invention relates to a short pulse laser (1) having a seed laser oscillator (2), a controllable pulse picker (4) for coupling out a laser pulse or a sequence of laser pulses, and an amplifier unit (5, 6) being mounted downstream of the pulse picker (5) and having at least one first amplifier stage (5) and a controllable first pump laser (8). The short pulse laser further includes a control unit (10) which is designed to control the pulse picker (4) and/or the first pump laser (8) such that the post-amplified laser pulses reach a predetermined power.