BEAM STEERING USING A THERMALLY ANISOTROPIC MEDIUM
Granted: June 2, 2011
Application Number:
20110128609
Apparatus for steering a beam of radiation includes a thermally anisotropic element configured such that the shape of the optical element can be varied by varying the temperature of the element. The beam is reflected from or transmitted through the element in a manner such that the direction of the beam on leaving the element can be varied by the change of shape resulting from the temperature variation.
ACOUSTO-OPTICALLY Q-SWITCHED CO2 LASER
Granted: May 26, 2011
Application Number:
20110122897
A pulsed CO2 laser is Q-switched by an intracavity acousto-optic (AO) Q-switch including an AO material transparent at a fundamental wavelength of the laser. In one example the AO material is germanium.
Simulating Phase-Coherent GNSS Signals
Granted: May 12, 2011
Application Number:
20110109506
A method and apparatus for simulating radio-frequency Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals that are carrier-phase and code-phase aligned with ambient GNSS signals at a user-specified location in the vicinity of the simulator. Such phase alignment allows the synthesized signals to be made to appear substantially the same as the authentic signals to a target receiver, allowing the target receiver to transition seamlessly between authentic and simulated signals. The method is…
Augmenting GNSS User Equipment to Improve Resistance to Spoofing
Granted: May 5, 2011
Application Number:
20110102259
A method of countering GNSS signal spoofing includes monitoring a plurality of GNSS signals received from a plurality of GNSS signal sources and comparing broadcast data to identify outlying data, which is excluded from generation of a navigation solution defined by the plurality of GNSS signals. The outlying data can be a vestigial signal from a code or carrier Doppler shift frequency. The method includes triggering a spoofing indicator upon identification of the outlying data or other…
PRE-IONIZATION METHOD FOR CO2 GAS-DISCHARGE LASER
Granted: April 14, 2011
Application Number:
20110085580
An RF powered CO2 gas-discharge laser includes discharge electrodes and a lasing gas mixture between the electrode. The lasing gas mixture is ionized when the RF power is applied to the electrodes and laser action is initiated when the RF power has been applied for a duration sufficient to ignite a discharge in the lasing gas mixture. The gas mixture is pre-ionized by periodically applying the RF power to the electrodes for a predetermined period during which ignition of a discharge is…
DIGITAL PULSE-WIDTH-MODULATION CONTROL OF A RADIO FREQUENCY POWER SUPPLY FOR PULSED LASER
Granted: April 14, 2011
Application Number:
20110085575
A pulse width modulation method for controlling the output power of a pulsed gas discharge laser powered by a pulsed RF power supply comprises delivering a train of digital pulses to the RF power supply. Each pulse in the train has an incrementally variable duration. The power supply is arranged to deliver a train of RF pulses corresponding in number and duration to the train of digital pulses received. The average power in the RF-pulse train can be varied by incrementally varying the…
LENSED DUAL-CHIP FIBER-COUPLER FOR PROVIDING AN AIMING BEAM IN AN INFRARED RADIATION DELIVERY APPARATUS
Granted: April 7, 2011
Application Number:
20110082447
Laser treatment apparatus includes one diode-laser providing infrared radiation for the treatment and another diode-laser for providing visible radiation. A lens launches the infrared and visible radiations from the diode-lasers into the entrance face of the optical fiber for transporting the radiations to a treatment location.
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…
Assimilating GNSS Signals to Improve Accuracy, Robustness, and Resistance to Signal Interference
Granted: March 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110068973
A method for upgrading GNSS equipment to improve position, velocity and time (PVT) accuracy, increase PVT robustness in weak-signal or jammed environments and protect against counterfeit GNSS signals (spoofing). A GNSS Assimilator couples to an RF input of existing GNSS equipment, e.g., a GPS receiver, and extracts navigation and timing information from available RF signals, including non-GNSS signals, or direct baseband aiding, e.g., from an inertial navigation system, frequency…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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…
