Off-axis diffractive beam shapers and splitters for reducing sensitivity to manufacturing tolerances
AssigneeMems Optical, Inc.
InventorDavid Renick Brown
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A diffractive element used in conjunction with a grating to move a desired order beam off-axis, thereby reducing interference by undesired orders. Use of the off-axis grating allows a more uniform beam in the presence of manufacturing defects, such as etch depth errors. The diffractive element used with the off-axis grating may include a beam shaper, a one-dimensional beam splitter, or a two-dimensional beam splitter.
Claims18
An off-axis beam shaper for producing an output beam of a desired order with a desired energy distribution, comprising:
- an optical substrate;
- and
- a diffractive surface formed on the optical substrate to perform both a beam shaping function on an input beam and to spatially separate the output beam of the desired order from all other diffracted beams of different orders, thereby avoiding interference between the output beam and any other diffracted beam of a different order.
An off-axis beam splitter for producing a plurality of substantially identical output beams, comprising:
- an optical substrate;
- and
- a diffractive surface formed on the optical substrate to split an input beam into the plurality of substantially identical output beams and to translate the plurality of output beams away from an optical axis of the input beam.
A method of shaping an input beam with diffractive optics, comprising:
- diffracting an input beam to have a desired shape and energy distribution at a predetermined distance from the optic;
- and
- spatially separating an output beam having a desired order from other diffracted beams of different orders at the predetermined distance.
A method for producing a plurality of substantially identical and uniform output light beams, comprising:
- splitting an input beam into the plurality of substantially identical output beams;
- and
- translating the plurality of output beams away from an optical axis of the input beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.