Apparatus for indicating the power and position of a laser beam
Granted: October 23, 1990
Patent Number:
4964735
An apparatus (12) for providing information about the power and position of a high laser beam includes a heat absorbing body (46) having a target area within which the laser beam is directed. Position information is provided by a plurality of thermocouples (46) connected in series in a circular array and located radially outward of the target area. In the preferred embodiment, the thermocouple array is divided into four quadrants (60-66), each quadrant generating a voltage proportional…
Time period and heart rate measurement system
Granted: October 23, 1990
Patent Number:
4964410
A system for allowing interactive time measurement and comparison of events and indication of heart rate intervals is disclosed. A part of vertical lines, an anchor bar and a movable or measurement bar, are displayed on a graphic display along with the signal to be analyzed. The bars can be moved relative to each other and the time between the two bars is indicated above a horizontal line connecting the bars. The bars may be locked in place and moved to a different portion of the…
Ring laser with improved beam quality
Granted: August 14, 1990
Patent Number:
4949358
A rod laser having a ring cavity configuration, and including a polarization rotator to compensate for birefringence of the laser's rod. Preferably, the rotator is a 90.degree. crystal quartz rotator. In a preferred embodiment, the ring laser is a stable quasi-unidirectional, non-confocal solid state ring laser. A telescope, including at least two lenses with variable inter-lens spacing, is preferably positioned in the laser beam path as closely as possible to the laser rod. The spacing…
Laser alignment servo method and apparatus
Granted: July 3, 1990
Patent Number:
4939739
A servo alignment method and apparatus for maintaining laser beam alignment. An operating parameter of the laser (such as output beam power) is measured, and error signals are generated from the measured operating parameter signal for controlling the laser beam alignment. In one class of embodiments, modulation signals are supplied to an intra-cavity component of a laser system to modulated the beam path. The beam path may be modulated by reciprocating a laser resonator mirror about a…
Noise suppression in recovery of clock from NRZ data
Granted: May 29, 1990
Patent Number:
4929849
A clock generator for extracting a clock signal from a data signal includes a timing recovery circuit operable to produce an output recovered clock which is synchronized with transitions occurring at its input. A circuit gates data transitions to the clock recovery circuit input only during time windows defined in a manner based upon the recovered clock. The time windows are produced by comparing the output of an integrator on the recovered clock signal to a reference. The comparator…
Adjustable mirror mount
Granted: May 15, 1990
Patent Number:
4925288
A mechanism (10) for adjustably mounting a laser mirror includes fixed and movable plates (20, 22) with a pivot assembly mounted therebetween. The mirror (44) is mounted on the movable plate (22). A pair of wedge structures interface between the two plates at locations spaced from the pivot assembly and function to vary the angle between the plates about the pivot assembly. In the preferred embodiment, the wedge structure includes a threaded screw (54) for driving a sphere (58) against…
Kinematic resonator support
Granted: February 20, 1990
Patent Number:
4901966
The subject invention relates to a laser system where the length stability of the resonant cavity is important. Three unique mouning assemblies are disclosed to improve the stability of the cavity. The first assembly relates to a kinematic support for mounting an Invar bar. The second assembly defines a once-piece gimbal pivot ring designed to mount laser mirrors. The final aspect of the invention includes a mounting assembly designed to automatically compensate for changes in length of…
Chromatically invariant multilayer dielectric thin film coating
Granted: January 30, 1990
Patent Number:
4896928
A short-wave-pass optical filter, including a partially absorbing or transparent substrate coated by a set of layers having different quarter-wave optical thicknesses, which is designed to reflect visible radiation of a selected color white transmitting visible radiation and maintaining a neutral color balance. The inventive filter is designed so that the desired reflected color (and the transmitted neutral color balance) is substantially independent of viewing angle (i.e., the incidence…
Self-synchronizing multiplexer
Granted: January 2, 1990
Patent Number:
4891808
A time division multiplexer is operable to sample data on parallel input channels at a sampling rate at least twice the data rate, to serially transmit the data for each channel in a respective time division, and to recover the data at a receive end. The multiplexer is provided with a bit storage register for successive samples on at least one input channel to be used as a marker channel. Gating connected to the bit storage register forces a detectable unnatural data pattern on the…
Scannable laser with integral wavemeter
Granted: September 5, 1989
Patent Number:
4864578
A scannable dye laser is provided with an integral wavemeter under computer control. The wavemeter has improved fine and coarse readout components. Incremental laser scans are precisely linked together to provide long, continuous frequency scans. The fine readout of the wavemeter provides a means for accurately piecing together the incremental scans.
Suppression of the second intracavity pulse in a synchronously pumped dye laser
Granted: August 29, 1989
Patent Number:
4862469
The subject invention relates to method of suppressing one of the counterpropagating intracavity pulses generated in a dye laser synchronously pumped by the output of a mode locked Q-switched pump laser. The method includes extracting a portion of one of the pulses generated in the cavity such that the other pulse experiences a greater effective gain. The pulse with the highest effective gain will dominate the other pulse and at the steady state only one pulse will exist in the cavity.…
Kinematic resonator support
Granted: April 4, 1989
Patent Number:
4818089
The subject invention relates to a laser system where the length stability of the resonant cavity is important. Three unique mounting assemblies are disclosed to improve the stability of the cavity. The first assembly relates to a kinematic support for mounting an Invar bar. The second assembly defines a once-piece gimbal pivot ring designed to mount laser mirrors. The final aspect of the invention includes a mounting assembly designed to automatically compensate for changes in length of…
Stabilized laser fiber launcher
Granted: March 28, 1989
Patent Number:
4815806
A system for launching laser light into an optical fiber, which includes means for suppressing establishment of an interfering standing wave in the laser cavity, either by preventing laser light from reflecting back into the cavity from the fiber, or by preventing light which does reflect into the cavity from the fiber from establishing an interfering standing wave. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a rod-type lens having a front surface for receiving incident laser light…
Gas discharge structure for an R.F. excited gas laser
Granted: March 28, 1989
Patent Number:
4817108
A gas discharge structure for an R.F. discharge excited gas laser comprising an R.F. electrode (1), a ground electrode (2) and a metal coolant carrying pipe (4) carried bie said R.F. electrode. The pipe (4) is connected at each end to coolant source or drain at ground potential. The coolant carrying pipe (4) is inductively decoupled at each end from ground potential and has a wall thickness many times greater than the "R.F. skin depth" at the R.F. frequency of operation.
Laser gas orifice injection system
Granted: January 17, 1989
Patent Number:
4799231
A laser resonator system including an optical resonator whose side wall has an orifice through which gas may enter the resonator's interior, and may subsequently flow along the resonator's longitudinal axis. An elongated electrode (which preferably is an anode) is positioned at the orifice in electrical communication with the entering gas so that the projection of the electrode's tip on the plane of the orifice does not coincide with the center of the orifice. In a preferred embodiment,…
Multilayer optical filter for producing colored reflected light and neutral transmission
Granted: December 27, 1988
Patent Number:
4793669
A short-wave-pass optical filter, that includes a partially absorbing or transparent substrate coated by a set of layers having specified quarter-wave optical thickness, and is designed to reflect visible radiation of a selected color while transmitting visible radiation and maintaining a neutral color balance. The coating includes layers having a high refractive index alternating with layers having a low refractive index. The refractive indices and layer thicknesses are selected so that…
Laser spot projector
Granted: October 11, 1988
Patent Number:
4776335
Disclosed is a laser spot projector for use with a laser coagulation system in which a laser beam is radiated as a focussed spot into a portion selected to be thermally coagulated. A laser source produces a laser beam, and a focussing lens focusses the laser beam on the selected portion in the form of a focussed laser beam spot. A variator lens is displaceably arranged between the laser source and focussing lens for changing the magnification of the laser spot depending upon the…
Laser coagulation system
Granted: July 26, 1988
Patent Number:
4759360
A laser coagulation system adapted for use in an ophthalmological treatment comprises a slit image projector for projecting a slit image into the eyeball of a patient to determine a selected portion of the eyeball to be coagulated, and a laser beam projector for projecting a laser beam onto the selected portion. Both the projectors include a common reflecting means which is divided into two side portions for directing slit light toward the selected portion to be coagulated, and a central…
Laser delivery system
Granted: July 26, 1988
Patent Number:
4760583
An improved gas laser is disclosed. The laser has a support tube to support and to maintain the alignment of the optical resonator structure. The gas lasing medium is used within the support tube to maintain the tube at a substantially constant temperature above the ambient. Furthermore, an active temperature controller is disclosed. The temperature controller maintains the gas lasing medium in the support tube at a substantially constant temperature. An active pressure controller is…
Polarization preserving reflector and method
Granted: May 24, 1988
Patent Number:
4746202
A polarization preserving reflector for reflecting an incident beam of monochromatic radiation, said beam having a polarization configuration and an angle of incidence. The polarization preserving reflector comprises a substrate; a highly reflective layer positioned adjacent to said substrate; and at least two thin film optical layers one of which being positioned adjacent to the highly reflective layer, one of the thin film optical layers having a high refractive index and another…
