Optically addressable light valves for high power operation
AssigneeLawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
InventorsBikramjit Chatterjee, Lars F. Voss, Clint Frye
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Abstract
An optically addressable light valve comprises a first transparent conductor layer, a layer of liquid crystal, and a photoconductor comprising an ultrawide band gap (UWBG) semiconductor. The liquid crystal is between the first transparent conductor layer and the semiconductor photoconductor. The optically addressable light valve is configured to apply a voltage across the liquid crystal and the UWBG semiconductor. A second transparent conductor may be formed in the UWBG semiconductor in some configurations, and the voltage may be applied across the first and second transparent conductor.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- an optical element comprising optically transparent material;
- an optical path to said optically transparent material over which a laser beam can propagate to reach said optical element;
- and
- at least one heat sink configured to extract heat from said optical element when said laser beam is incident thereon,
- wherein said at least one heat sink includes an inner open region through which said laser beam can propagate to reach said optical element, said inner open region surrounded by sidewalls, and
- wherein said sidewalls include vents providing access to said inner open region from outside said sidewall, said vents located proximal a front surface of said optical element to provide cooling thereto.
An apparatus comprising:
- an optical element comprising optically transparent material;
- an optical path to said optically transparent material over which a laser beam can propagate to reach said optical element;
- and
- at least one heat sink configured to extract heat from said optical element when said laser beam is incident thereon,
- wherein said at least one heat sink includes an inner open region through which said laser beam can propagate to reach said optical element, said inner open region surrounded by at least one sidewall, and
- wherein said at least one sidewall includes at least one vent providing access to said inner open region from outside said at least one sidewall, said at least one vent located proximal to a surface of said optical element to provide cooling thereto.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.