Arrangement of expanding optical flows for efficient laser extraction
AssigneeInnoven Energy LLC
InventorsRobert O. Hunter, Jr., Adlai H. Smith
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A set of optical elements for optical extraction composed of packed expanding optical cross sections to efficiently extract from a large gain region. The elements are rectangular shaped concave small expansion lenses matched to rectangular convex collimating lenses. Absorbing sheets divide an overall large volume up into smaller volumes to minimize losses due to amplified spontaneous emission. This arrangement has various applications, particularly in inertial confinement technology, where it may be used to extract energy from KrF laser media energized by electron beams. For certain applications, this regime of the gain medium may have zones at the absorbing sheets where this is no gain.
Claims16
A system for expanding optical flow for laser extraction, comprising:
- two input beams that roughly counter propagate;
- two expansion optics to receive each of the two counter propagating input beams, wherein the expansion characteristics of the two expansion optics are selected in order to maximize the optical extraction efficiency;
- one or more gain mediums to receive the counter propagating input beams from the expansion optics to form two amplified propagating beams, wherein the one or more gain mediums comprises:
- a plurality of arrays that are separated by an absorbing buffer region to isolate the one or more gain mediums in order to diminish the effects of amplified spontaneous emission;
- and
- two output optics to receive the two amplified propagating beams after passing through the gain medium.
A method for expanding optical flow for laser extraction, comprising:
- roughly counter propagating two input beams;
- receiving each of the two counter propagating beams at two expansion optics, wherein the expansion characteristics of the two expansion optics are chosen in order to maximize the optical extraction efficiency;
- receiving the counter propagating beams exiting the two expansion optics at one or more gain mediums to form two amplified propagating beams, wherein the one or more gain mediums comprises:
- a plurality of arrays that are separated by an absorbing buffer region to isolate the one or more gain mediums in order to diminish the effects of amplified spontaneous emission;
- and
- receiving the two amplified propagating beams after passing through the gain medium at two output optics.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.