The invention relates to an optical arrangement having a division element which divides an input beam consisting of a sequence of temporally equidistant light pulses into two spatially separate partial beams, at least one optical element through which at least one of the partial beams propagates, and at least one combination element which spatially superimposes the partial beams in an output beam. It is the object of the present invention to show a method for increasing the pulse energy of light pulses which is improved in comparison with the prior art. The invention solves this problem by virtue of the fact that the combination element superimposes a number of the temporally successive light pulses in a single light pulse in the output beam. The invention also relates to a method for increasing the pulse energy of light pulses.