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US 5,206,763 AGranted
Corrective optics for rectangular laser beams
OwnerJohn A. Macken, John A. Zurykinventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical apparatus is described which reshapes rectangular cross-section laser beams, with toroidal divergence to generally square cross-section beams with plane or spherical divergence. The apparatus uses either two spherical mirrors or two pairs of spherical mirrors.
Claims4
An apparatus for changing the geometric cross section of a laser beam comprising:
- first mirror with a generally spherical curvature of radius R.sub.1 and a second mirror with a generally spherical curvature of radius R.sub.2 ;
- said laser beam can be defined to having an imaginary central ray;
- said first and second mirror positioned and oriented such that a said central ray of said laser beam strikes said first mirror at an incidence angle .phi..sub.1 producing a reflected beam which strikes said second mirror at angle .phi..sub.2 and producing a reflected beam;
- said central ray has a path length of L between said first mirror and said second mirror;
- said laser beam immediately before it strikes said first reflector has transverse dimensions of d.sub.1 and d.sub.2 where d.sub.2 is at least as larger than as d.sub.1 ;
- said laser beam immediately before it strikes said first reflector has a wavefront with radius of curvature S.sub.2 in a first imaginary plane perpendicular to said dimension d.sub.1 ;
- said laser beam immediately before it strikes said first mirror has a wavefront of radius of curvature S.sub.1 in a second imaginary plane perpendicular to said dimension d.sub.2 ;
- said first mirror is oriented such that said incident and reflected beam striking said first mirror generally lies in a said second imaginary plane;
- said second mirror is oriented such that said incident and reflected beam striking said second mirror lies in a third imaginary plane which is generally perpendicular to said second imaginary plane;
- said laser beam immediately after it has reflected off said second mirror has transverse dimensions D.sub.1 and D.sub.2, said dimension D.sub.1 approximately equal to said dimension D.sub.2 ;
- said laser beam immediately after is has reflected off said second mirror has generally spherical wavefront of radius of curvature equal to S.sub.5 where radius S.sub.5 approximately equals infinity;
- said first and second mirrors are positioned and configured to generally satisfy the following equations:
- ##EQU6##
10 more elements
An apparatus for transforming the shape of a laser beam comprising:
- said laser beam can be defined as having an imaginary central ray;
- first optical means consisting of at least one spherical mirror reflecting said central ray of said laser beam at an incidence angle greater than 25 degrees;
- measured from normal incidence to said spherical mirror of said first optical means;
- said first optical means converges said laser beam to form first line focus and second line focus;
- said laser beam initially has transverse dimensions of d.sub.1 and d.sub.2 where d.sub.2 is at least as large as d.sub.1 ;
- second optical means consisting of at least one spherical mirror which reflects said central ray of said laser beam at an incidence angle greater than 25 degrees;
- said laser beam emerges from said second optical means with transverse dimensions D.sub.1 and D.sub.2 ;
- said first optical means is separated from said second optical means by a distance L;
- said first line focus is separated from said first optical means by a distance S.sub.3 which is approximately given by the following equation:
- ##EQU7## said second line focus is separated from said first optical means by a distance S.sub.4 which is approximately given by the following equation:
- ##EQU8## said second optical means acts on said laser beam to form an output beam which has an approximately spherical wave front curvature of radius S.sub.5.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.