FIBER MOPA WITH AMPLIFYING TRANSPORT FIBER
Granted: March 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110069376
Frequency-multiplied fiber-MOPA apparatus includes one enclosure containing a master oscillator and fiber amplifier stages and another enclosure containing frequency-multiplying stages. Radiation is transmitted between the enclosures by a transport fiber in a flexible jacket or enclosure. The transport fiber functions additionally as a power amplifier fiber, and amplifies the radiation while transporting the radiation between the enclosures. The amplifying transport fiber is energized by…
OPTICALLY-PUMPED EXTERNAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS WITH FRONT-COOLED GAIN-STRUCTURES
Granted: March 17, 2011
Application Number:
20110064099
A semiconductor gain-structure functions as a gain-element in a laser-resonator. The gain-structure is bonded to a diamond heat-spreader that is peripherally cooled by a heat-sink configured to allow access to the gain-structure by laser-radiation circulating in the laser-resonator. In one example, the gain-structure is used as a transmissive gain-structure in a traveling-wave ring-resonator. In another example, the gain-structure surmounts a mirror-structure which functions as an…
PULSED FIBER-MOPA WITH WIDELY-VARIABLE PULSE-DURATION
Granted: February 17, 2011
Application Number:
20110038031
Master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) apparatus includes two seed-pulse sources coupled to a single fiber amplifier including one or more stages of amplification. One of the seed-pulse sources is a single-mode source generating pulses having a duration selectively variable between about 0.1 ns and 10 ns. The other seed-pulse source is a multi-mode source generating pulses having a duration selectively variable between about 1 ns and 10 ?s. Selectively operating one or the other of the…
CARRIER ENVELOPE PHASE STABILIZATION OF AN OPTICAL AMPLIFIER
Granted: January 27, 2011
Application Number:
20110019267
A laser and amplifier combination delivers a sequence of optical pulses. Pulses from the laser are temporally stretched by a pulse stretcher before amplification and temporally compressed by a pulse compressed after amplification. The pulse stretcher includes a diffraction grating on which pulses being compressed are incident. An arrangement is provided for measuring the carrier-envelope phase of the pulses and adjusting the incidence angle of pulses on the grating cooperative with the…
INTRACAVITY FREQUENCY-CONVERTED OPTICALLY-PUMPED SEMICONDUCTOR LASER WITH RED-LIGHT OUTPUT
Granted: December 23, 2010
Application Number:
20100322270
In a branched resonator OPS-laser arrangement, a combination of intra-cavity optical parametric generation and intra-cavity sum-frequency mixing provides output radiation in a range between about 550 nanometers about 700 nanometers from an OPS fundamental wavelength in a range between about 900 nm and about 1100 nm.
INTRACAVITY FREQUENCY-CONVERTED OPTICALLY-PUMPED SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATOR
Granted: December 23, 2010
Application Number:
20100321765
In a branched resonator OPS-laser arrangement, a combination of intra-cavity optical parametric generation and intra-cavity frequency conversion provides output radiation in a range between about 550 nanometers about 800 nanometers from an OPS fundamental wavelength in a range between about 900 nm and about 1100 nm.
ARRANGEMENT FOR RF POWER DELIVERY TO A GAS DISCHARGE LASER WITH CASCADED TRANSMISSION LINE SECTIONS
Granted: December 16, 2010
Application Number:
20100316084
RF power is transmitted to a CO2 gas discharge laser form a source of RF power via a series combination of transmission line sections. The lengths and characteristic impedances of the transmission line sections are selected to transform the impedance of the RF power source to the operating impedance of the laser.
BANDWIDTH-LIMITED AND LONG PULSE MASTER OSCILLATOR POWER OSCILLATOR LASER SYSTEMS
Granted: December 9, 2010
Application Number:
20100309945
Laser systems have a line-narrowed master oscillator and a power oscillator for amplifying the output of the master oscillator. The power oscillator includes optical arrangements for limiting the bandwidth of radiation that can be amplified. The limited amplification bandwidth of the power oscillator is relatively broad compared to that of the output of the master oscillator, but narrower than would be the case without the bandwidth limiting arrangements. The bandwidth narrowing…
EXTERNAL FREQUENCY-QUADRUPED 1064 NM MODE-LOCKED LASER
Granted: November 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100278200
The output of a mode-locked solid-state NIR laser having a pulse duration less than 50 picoseconds at a pulse-repetition frequency is frequency doubled in a nonlinear crystal to provide green radiation. The green radiation is type-I frequency doubled in a BBO crystal to provide UV radiation. The green radiation is focused into an elliptical spot in the BBO crystal with the major axis of the spot in the walk-off plane of the crystal. The length of the crystal is chosen to be much less…
EDGE-EMITTING SEMICONDUCTOR LASER WITH PHOTONIC-BANDGAP STRUCTURE FORMED BY INTERMIXING
Granted: November 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100278204
A separate-confinement heterostructure, edge-emitting semiconductor laser having a wide emitter width has elongated spaced apart intermixed and disordered zones extending through and alongside the emitter parallel to the emission direction of the emitter. The intermixed zones inhibit lasing of high order modes. This limits the slow axis divergence of a beam emitted by the laser.
SENSING USING POLARIZATION DIVERSITY AND WAVELENGTH DEPENDENT BACKSCATTER
Granted: November 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100280765
Provided herein are systems and methods capable of detecting and discriminating and/or classifying hazardous biological agents or other hazardous agents. In one aspect, a system measures electromagnetic energy scattered by a material at the different polarizations states and wavelengths. The system then combines the measured electromagnetic wavelengths at the different polarization states and wavelengths into different combinations to produce input parameters for a classifier. The input…
OPS-LASER PUMPED FIBER-LASER
Granted: October 14, 2010
Application Number:
20100260210
An optical gain-fiber of a fiber-laser or a fiber-amplifier is optically pumped by radiation from a plurality of external cavity, optically pumped, surface-emitting semiconductor lasers (OPS-lasers). In one example, radiation from the OPS-lasers is focused by a lens into cladding of the gain-fiber at one end of the fiber. In another example radiation from the diode-lasers is focused into the core of a delivery fiber at one end of the delivery fiber. The other end of the delivery fiber is…
CAVITY-DUMPED PULSED SOLID-STATE LASER WITH VARIABLE PULSE-DURATION
Granted: September 30, 2010
Application Number:
20100246616
In a cavity-dumped, repetitively-pulsed, solid-state laser cavity dumping is protracted over a predetermined time longer than a round-trip time of the resonator of the laser. The cavity dumping is effected by a Pockels cell optical switch. During a dumping period a voltage applied to the Pockels cell falls in a predetermined time. Varying the voltage fall-time varies the duration of pulses provided by the laser, independent of the pulse-repetition frequency.
ELECTRODES FOR GENERATING A STABLE DISCHARGE IN GAS LASER SYSTEMS
Granted: September 23, 2010
Application Number:
20100239748
Arcing is minimized in a discharge chamber of a gas laser system by utilizing an electrode which comprises a surface portion capable of functioning as one of an anode and a cathode in order to energize a gas mixture in a discharge chamber of the gas discharge laser system, a shoulder portion being positioned on either side of the surface portion and being exposed to the gas mixture, and a coating layer made of electrically insulating material, wherein the coating layer is attached to the…
TWO-DIMENSIONAL DIODE-LASER ARRAY WITH BROAD-BAND OUTPUT
Granted: July 22, 2010
Application Number:
20100183039
It is demonstrated that substantial operating-parameter-dependent temperature-differences can exist between diode-laser bars in pulsed operation of a stack of such bars arranged to provide a two-dimensional array of diode-laser emitters. These differences can produce distortion of the aggregate output spectrum of the stack. By selecting particular nominal emitting wavelengths of the diode-laser bars for specific positions in the stack, the aggregate emission-spectrum can be tailored to a…
COMPENSATION FOR TRANSIENT HEATING OF LASER MIRRORS
Granted: July 8, 2010
Application Number:
20100172042
A mirror assembly for a carbon dioxide (CO2) slab laser resonator includes a center section having a rectangular cross-section and a pair of thermal balancing bars. A concave reflecting surface formed on a front edge of a center section. The side-bars are attached to either side of the center section and extend forward of the reflective surface. Dimensions of the center section and side bars are selected to position the thermal neutral plane of the assembly close to the reflective…
PARTICLE DAMAGE PROTECTION FOR HIGH POWER CO2 SLAB LASER MIRRORS
Granted: July 8, 2010
Application Number:
20100172386
A CO2 gas discharge laser includes elongated planar live and ground electrodes vertically spaced and electrically insulated from each. The electrodes are spaced apart by ceramic spacer strips arranged along the edges of the electrodes. An auxiliary electrode is located at each end of the live electrode, co-planar with the live electrode, longitudinally spaced part from the live electrode vertically spaced apart from, but electrically connected to, the ground electrode. The auxiliary…
HERMETICALLY-SEALED RF FEED-THROUGH WITH INTEGRATED CAPACITOR
Granted: May 13, 2010
Application Number:
20100118901
A carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas-discharge slab laser includes elongated discharge-electrodes in a sealed enclosure. Radio Frequency (RF) power is supplied to the electrodes via an impedance matching network and a co-axial electrical low inductance transmission line feed-through sealed to the enclosure. The feed-trough includes two spring contacts which are configured to be spring compression push-fit in grooves in edges of the discharge-electrodes. A central conductor of the feed-through is…
LASER ENGRAVING APPARATUS
Granted: April 29, 2010
Application Number:
20100102043
In laser engraving apparatus for engraving a gray-scale image on a plastic ID-card, the laser is a modulatable optically pumped semiconductor laser. Focusing optics focus a beam from the laser into a focal spot about 10 micrometers in diameter. The ID-card is mounted on a turntable which is rotated such that the focal spot sweeps over the ID card. The turntable is translated in a direction transverse to the rotation direction and the laser is modulated such that the engraved gray-scale…
THERMAL DISTORTION COMPENSATION FOR LASER MIRRORS
Granted: April 29, 2010
Application Number:
20100103974
A laser mirror assembly is disclosed with improved pointing stability. An elongated mirror includes a concave reflecting portion. A pair of elongated planar portions extend parallel to the concave reflecting portion on either side thereof. The planar portions are stepped down from the reflecting portion. The mirror is formed from copper. A pair of stainless steel strips are connected to planar portions. The bimetallic effect between the copper mirror and the stainless steel strips…
