Aspects of the disclosure provide a system and method used for time-of-flight lidar applications. Such systems and methods include a laser and pulse clipper which produces a shuttering effect to reduce the instantaneous output power from the pulse clipper. Accordingly the output from the pulse clipper is more suitable for time-of-flight lidar applications than that initially produced by the laser. This can allow for lasers which may otherwise exceed eye safety limits to be used for time-of-flight lidar applications without exceeding the eye safety limits.