Optical beam position active sensing and control using satellite beams
AssigneePalo Alto Research Center Incorporated
InventorsDavid L. Hecht, Uma Srinivasan, Robert Matusiak, Robert P. Kowalski, Eric J. Shrader
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Abstract
A beam position control system controls a position of a beam directed from a beam source. The beam position control system includes a beam position sensing system that generates one or more satellite beams which are used to determine the position of a main beam. A beam offset computation block determines a relative position of the main beam with respect to a desired main beam position and provides beam offset information to a controller that generates a compensation signal used to adjust the main beam position to the desired main beam position via a beam actuation system.
Claims19
A beam position control system for controlling a position of a beam directed from a beam source, the system comprising:
- a beam position sensing system that receives the directed beam, generates a main beam and one or more satellite beams from the directed beam, transmits the main beam and the one or more satellite beams, and receives the transmission of the one or more satellite beams;
- a main beam offset computation block configured to determine a relative position of the main beam to a desired main beam position based at least in part on the detected transmission of the one or more satellite beans;
- main beam offset information generated by the main beam offset computational block;
- a controller configured to receive the main beam offset information from the main beam offset computation block;
- a compensation signal, generated by the controller, and designed to adjust the main beam position to the desired main beam position;
- and
- a beam actuator system configured to receive the compensation signal and to adjust the main beam position based on the compensation signal, the beam actuator system including,
- a signal generator which generates a plurality of signals across a selected range;
- and
- a beam deflector arranged to receive the plurality of signals, wherein the beam deflector is an acousto-optic modulator and a deflection angle α is a function of one of 2n * arcsin(λf/(2nVA) and λf/VA wherein n is the optical index of refraction, λ is an optical wavelength, f is the acoustic frequency, and VA is the acoustic velocity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.