Isolated ring cavity resonator
AssigneeArete Associates
InventorMicah Boyd
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Described herein are isolated ring cavities that have refractive and heat-generating components physically separated and mechanically held by flexure mounts that are adapted to function in combination with the physically separated structure to moderate the thermal expansion effects of the heat generated by the refractive and other heat-generating elements (e.g., gain element) of the optical cavity. The flexure mounts may be configured as thinned portions of connective elements, reducing the effects of thermal expansion of the baseplate and allowing a thermal isolation from the baseplate. Multiple flexure mounts may be arranged to minimize further the effects of thermal expansion of the baseplate.
Claims18
(canceled)
A laser resonator system, comprising:
- a baseplate;
- a gain medium mounted to a top plane of the baseplate,
- a support structure operable to hold a plurality of optical components, the optical components being operable to resonate laser light through the gain medium in an optical plane that is substantially orthogonal to the top plane of the baseplate;
- and
- a plurality of flexure mounts configured between the base plate and the support structure to physically and thermally isolate the gain medium from the optical components.
A method operable with a laser resonator, comprising:
- resonating laser light in an optical plane through a gain medium mounted to a top plane of a baseplate, the optical plane being substantially orthogonal to the top plane of the baseplate;
- supporting a plurality of optical components in the optical plane with a support structure;
- physically and thermally isolating the gain medium from the optical components with a plurality of flexure mounts;
- and
- outputting the laser light from an output coupler of the laser resonator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.