Minimizing high power laser thermal blooming in the atmosphere

Abstract

The output of a high power pulsed or CW laser (22), which may be mounted on a vehicle (17) is reflected from a convex mirror (27) to a concave mirror (29) that is displaced radially outward on a rotating structure (14) from the convex mirror by at least two beam diameters so that each pulse emanates from a position around a circle which is displaced from adjacent pulses by at least the diameter of the beam, thereby to minimize thermal blooming, or the position of a CW output laser beam is slewed. Directing the beams so that all of them will converge at a target area which is a given range from the apparatus is achieved by moving the convex mirror axially in response to range control signals provided through brushes (47) and slip rings (46). The rotating structure (14) including the laser waveguide (24) is journaled by bearings (50, 51) for rotation by a gear in response to a pinion (34) and gear reduction (37) driven by a motor (38).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.