Temporal character of pulsed-laser cone emission

Temporal character of cone emission from Sr vapor excited with \ensuremath{\sim}3-ns, near-resonant laser pulses is studied with \ensuremath{\sim}0.5-ns resolution. The cone pulses appear significantly narrower than the laser pulse. Their properties (amplitude, width, energy, delay, and angular distribution) systematically depend on the laser energy and detuning in a way that contradicts present, steady-state models of cone emission.