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US 4,393,303 AGranted
Intracavity phase front and power control
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorJames M. Spinhirne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An adaptive optic control system employs a single intracavity deformable mirror having a separately controlled multi-pass region and single-pass region to separately control the output power and wave front, respectively.
Claims4
An adaptive optical resonator comprising:
- an optical gain medium;
- means for exciting optical radiation within said gain medium;
- reflective means, including a deformable mirror, disposed about said optical gain medium to form an unstable optical resonator for said radiation;
- and
- feedback means, responsive to a portion of said outcoupled radiation, for controlling said deformable mirror, characterized in that:
- said deformable mirror has a first region reflecting radiation within said resonator and a second region reflecting radiation out of said resonator;
- said feedback means includes means for focusing a portion of said outcoupled radiation to a plurality of feedback focal points, a first detector responsive to a first fraction of said portion of said outcoupled radiation falling within a predetermined aperture centered on one of said feedback focal points and connected to means for controlling said first region to maximize the power of said first fraction of radiation impinging on said first detector, and a second detector responsive to a second fraction of that portion of said outcoupled radiation directed at another of said feedback focal points and connected to means for controlling said second region of said deformable mirror to adjust the wave front of said outcoupled radiation.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.