Narrow-band laser apparatus
AssigneeLambda Physik Gesellschaft Zur Herstellung Von Lasern mbH
InventorsDirk Basting, Jurgen Kleinschmidt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A narrow-band laser apparatus comprises an optical resonator including first and second reflectors for reflecting radiation, a laser medium for amplifying radiation in said resonator and an etalon for selecting a given wavelength component from said radiation. A polarizing beam splitter is provided for linearly polarizing said radiation and also for acting as an output coupler. In order to obtain very narrow bandwidth radiation of high intensity, a Faraday rotator is provided for rotating the plane of polarization while maintaining the linear polarization thereby allowing a second wavelength selection element (such as a grating) to be efficiently employed to further narrow the output of the laser.
Claims27
A narrow band laser apparatus comprising:
- a resonant cavity including a pair of reflective end mirrors;
- a gain medium located within said resonant cavity;
- means for exciting the gain medium to generate a laser beam;
- means for linearly polarizing the laser beam;
- first line narrowing means located between the polarizing means and one end mirror;
- means for controllably rotating the plane of polarization of the light beam while maintaining the linear polarization of the beam, said rotation means being located between said polarizing means and the ocher end mirror;
- means connected to the rotating means for independently varying the amount the rotation means rotates the plane of polarization of the laser beam;
- and
- means for coupling the laser beam out the cavity, with the percentage of the light beam that is coupled out of the cavity being a function of the amount the rotation means rotates the plane of polarization of the laser beam.
A narrow band laser apparatus comprising:
- a resonant cavity including a pair of reflective end mirrors;
- a gain medium located within said resonant cavity;
- means for exciting the gain medium to generate a laser beam;
- a polarizing beam splitter for linearly polarizing the laser beam;
- an etalon located between the beam splitter and one end mirror;
- a Faraday rotator for rotating the plane of polarization of the light beam while maintaining the linear polarization of the beam and located between said beam splitter and said other end mirror and wherein said beam splitter further functions to couple the laser beam out of the cavity, with the percentage of output coupling being a function of the amount the Faraday rotator rotates the plane of polarization of the laser beam;
- and
- a line narrowing means located between the faraday rotator and the other end mirror.
A narrow band laser apparatus comprising:
- a resonant cavity including a pair of reflective end mirrors;
- a gain medium located within said resonant cavity;
- means for exciting the gain medium to generate a laser beam;
- means for linearly polarizing the laser beam;
- first line narrowing means located between the polarizing means and one end mirror;
- means for rotating the plane of polarization of the light beam while maintaining the linear polarization of the beam, said rotation means being located between said polarizing means and the other end mirror;
- second line narrowing means located between said rotating means and the other end mirror, said second line narrowing means being of the type which requires substantially linear polarization interaction to avoid reducing the efficiency of the system;
- and
- means for coupling the laser beam out of the cavity, with the percentage of the light beam that is coupled out of the cavity being a function of the amount the rotation means rotates the plane of polarization of the laser beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.