Mode multiplexing optical coupling device
Granted: November 23, 2004
Patent Number:
6823117
An efficient tapered optical fiber bundle along with the method of manufacturing is presented. The tapered fiber bundle is fully fused to an induced shape with no interstitial space between fibers. To minimize fiber deformation and hence the tapered bundle's loss, the individual fibers are minimally deformed by positioning them in a fixture with predetermined geometry prior to fusion. The bundle could be optionally reshaped after fusion. The tapered bundle could then be used in its…
Eyesafe Q-switched Er-doped solid-state laser
Granted: November 2, 2004
Patent Number:
6813302
A laser device for producing laser radiation at an eyesafe wavelength from a diode-pumped solid-state laser. The device consists of three stages. The first stage is a laser diode whose output pumps the second stage. The second stage is a guided-wave laser or guided-wave Raman-shifted laser whose output pumps into the upper laser level of the Erbium laser dopant of the third stage. The third stage is an Erbium-doped solid-state crystalline-host laser whose output wavelength is in the…
Closed-loop purging system for laser
Granted: September 28, 2004
Patent Number:
6798813
A method of minimizing contamination of optical components of a laser resonator is disclosed. The resonator components are located in an enclosure, which may contain contaminants including water vapor and organic favor released by the optical components, mounts of the optical components, or the enclosure itself. The enclosure may also contain suspended particulate matter. In order to reduce the level of these contaminants, a purging system extracts gas from the enclosure and passes the…
Folded tapered-waveguide CO2 laser
Granted: September 28, 2004
Patent Number:
6798816
A folded waveguide CO2 laser includes a plurality of waveguides arranged in a zigzag pattern with ends thereof overlapping. The laser includes a resonator having an axis extending through the plurality of waveguides. At least a portion of at least one of the waveguides has a uniform minimum width selected cooperative with the height of the waveguide and the laser wavelength such that the resonator can oscillate in only a single mode. At least a portion of one of the waveguides is tapered…
High power waveguide laser
Granted: September 7, 2004
Patent Number:
6788722
The above discussed and other drawbacks and deficiencies of the prior art are overcome or alleviated by a laser of the present invention. In accordance with the present invention the laser comprises a housing defining a plurality of compartments therein, a folded waveguide disposed within the housing, the folded waveguide defining a plurality of channels having a substantially rectangular cross section for guiding a laser beam, a plurality of electrodes disposed in the plurality of…
Micromachining with high-energy, intra-cavity Q-switched CO2 laser pulses
Granted: August 31, 2004
Patent Number:
6784399
An EOM Q-switched CO2 laser produces bursts of laser pulses delivered at a high PRF such as 20-140 kHz and having a short high-power spike of about 80-150 ns followed by a lower-power tail of about 0.05-12.0 &mgr;s. The bursts and/or laser pulses can be shaped by controlling the RF pumping duty cycle, the delay between the onset of RF pumping and the initiation of Q-switching, the pulse repetition frequency, and/or the duration of the tail. The bursts of laser pulses can be adapted to…
Assembly for focusing and coupling the radiation produced by a semiconductor laser into optical fibers
Granted: August 31, 2004
Patent Number:
6785440
An assembly for focusing and coupling radiation produced by a semiconductor laser into an optical fiber, in particular a multimode optical fiber, including a radiation-focusing element in the form of cylinder lens disposed in the area between the radiating surface of the semiconductor laser and light entrance side of the optical fiber, the length of the cylinder lens being at least equal to a width of a beam exit window defining the radiation surface of the semiconductor laser, and the…
Rotatable laser window with spring-loaded bearing
Granted: August 24, 2004
Patent Number:
6782033
A bearing for a rotatable window in a laser enclosure includes a bearing shaft rotatably fitted in a bearing sleeve. The bearing shaft is in the form of a hollow cylinder and the window is held in the bearing sleeve. The bearing shaft and the bearing sleeve each include a circumferential generally V-shaped groove. The grooves are aligned with other and a coil spring in the form of a continuous loop is located in the grooves. Coils of the coil spring make point contact with sloping…
Apparatus for projecting a line of light from a diode-laser array
Granted: August 10, 2004
Patent Number:
6773142
Apparatus for projecting a line of light includes a linear array of diode-lasers arranged in a diode-laser bar. An optical system focuses fast axis diverging rays from diode-lasers in the array into a fast-axis focal plane of the optical system. The optical system forms slow axis rays from the diode-lasers into bundles of parallel rays that intersect in the fast axis focal plane. The focused fast-axis rays and the intersecting bundles of parallel rays form the line of light in the fast…
Intra-cavity beam homogenizer resonator
Granted: August 3, 2004
Patent Number:
6771683
An excimer or molecular fluorine laser system includes a discharge chamber filled with a gas mixture, multiple electrodes within the discharge chamber and connected to the discharge circuit for energizing the gas mixture, a resonant cavity including the discharge chamber for generating a laser beam, and an intracavity homogenizer for homogenizing an intensity profile of the laser beam generated in the resonator. The intracavity homogenizer may include each of a first bi-prism and a…
Q-switched cavity dumped CO2 laser for material processing
Granted: February 24, 2004
Patent Number:
6697408
This disclosure discusses techniques for obtaining wavelength selected simultaneously super pulsed Q-switched and cavity dumped laser pulses utilizing high optical damage threshold electro-optic modulators, maintaining a zero DC voltage bias on the CdTe electro-optic modulator (EOM) so as to minimize polarization variations depending on the location of the laser beam propagating through the CdSe EOM crystal, as well as the addition of one or more laser amplifiers in a compact package and…
Digital electronic synchronization of ultrafast lasers
Granted: February 3, 2004
Patent Number:
6687270
In a method and apparatus for synchronizing the output of two passively modelocked pulsed lasers, the output of each laser is sampled and delivered to two photodiodes, one for each laser. The output of the each photodiode is converted to a train of digital pulses having the pulse repetition frequency of each laser. The digital pulses are processed in a digital phase detector that generates from the digital pulses a first analog voltage representative of the phase difference at the…
Q-switching method for pulse train generation
Granted: January 27, 2004
Patent Number:
6683893
A method of operating a continuously pumped, Q-switched laser to provide trains of pulses for laser operations is disclosed. The laser includes a solid-state gain-medium that exhibits a thermal-lensing effect on being optically pumped. Pulse delivery is controlled by a Q-switch that is in a normally-open state when the laser is not delivering pulses. This allows the laser to deliver CW laser radiation when pulses are not being delivered. A train of pulses is delivered by repeatedly…
High-power external-cavity optically-pumped semiconductor lasers
Granted: January 27, 2004
Patent Number:
6683901
External-cavity optically-pumped semiconductor lasers (OPS-lasers) including an OPS-structure having a mirror-structure surmounted by a surface-emitting, semiconductor multilayer (periodic) gain-structure are disclosed. The gain-structure is pumped by light from diode-lasers. The OPS-lasers can provide fundamental laser output-power of about two Watts (2.0 W) or greater. Intracavity frequency-converted arrangements of the OPS-lasers can provide harmonic laser output-power of about…
Closed-loop purging system for laser
Granted: December 30, 2003
Patent Number:
6671303
A method of operating a laser is disclosed. Components of the laser are located in an enclosure, which may contain contaminants including water vapor and organic vapor released by the optical components, mounts of the optical components, or the enclosure itself. The enclosure may also contain suspended particulate matter and ozone. In order to reduce the level of these contaminants, a purging system extracts gas from the enclosure and passes the gas through a catalyst to decompose the…
Tunable optically-pumped semiconductor laser including a polarizing resonator mirror
Granted: December 9, 2003
Patent Number:
6661830
An optically-pumped semiconductor (OPS) laser includes a multilayer structure including a mirror-structure surmounted by a multilayer semiconductor gain-structure. A membrane mirror is spaced apart from the mirror structure to form a laser resonator between the mirror structure and the membrane mirror, with the gain-structure included in the laser resonant cavity. Pump light is transmitted through the membrane mirror into the gain structure. The membrane mirror includes a grating having…
Cylindrical two-dimensional diode-laser arrays and method for making same
Granted: November 18, 2003
Patent Number:
6650668
A cylindrical two-dimensional diode-laser assembly includes fractionally-cylindrical dielectric segments bonded in a circular aperture in a metal heat-sink. Diode laser bars are located in gaps between the segments with light from the diode-lasers directed inwardly. The segments are made by cutting slots in one end of a tube of the dielectric material with the width of the slots corresponding to the width of the gaps and the part of the tube between slots providing the segments. The…
Multi-output laser-radiation source
Granted: October 7, 2003
Patent Number:
6631155
A laser-radiation source includes a laser delivering an output beam, a lens, and an optical arrangement for dividing the output beam into a main beam and an auxiliary beam. The main and auxiliary beams are coupled by the lens into entrance faces of respectively a main optical fiber and an auxiliary optical fiber. The entrance face of the main optical fiber is located on the optical axis of the lens. The entrance face of the auxiliary optical fiber is laterally displaced from the optical…
Crystalline filters for ultraviolet light sensors
Granted: September 16, 2003
Patent Number:
6620347
A crystal filter and a method of making a crystal filter capable of transmitting radiation within a particular pass band is disclosed. The crystal filter is particularly appropriate for a UV detection system, where the pass band is between about 200 to about 350 nm. A UV detection system incorporating the crystal filter is also described. One embodiment of crystal filter is formed from a single-crystal transparent host, such as a fluoride host, codoped with lanthanide or actinide…
Diode-laser line-illuminating system
Granted: September 2, 2003
Patent Number:
6612719
An illumination apparatus includes a semiconductor laser providing light-output in first and second mutually perpendicular axes. The light-output propagates in a direction mutually perpendicular to the first and second axes. An optical system is arranged cooperative with the semiconductor laser to focus the light-output inn the first and second axes at respectively first and second focal points spaced apart in the propagation direction. At a plane intersecting the first focal point…
