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US 8,942,266 B2Granted
Angular beam adjustment systems and methods for laser systems
AssigneeNewport Corporation
InventorRichard Boggy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments are directed to systems and methods for correcting lateral and angular displacement of laser beams within a laser cavity. For some embodiments, such systems and methods are used to correct angular displacement of laser beams within a laser cavity that result from varying the lasing wavelength in a tunable laser system.
Claims39
A wavelength tunable laser system, comprising:
- a laser cavity defined by an end mirror disposed at a first end of the laser cavity and an output coupler disposed at a second end of the laser cavity;
- a gain medium disposed within the laser cavity including an opposed pair of beam input surfaces with at least one of the beam input surfaces comprising an angled beam input surface which is formed at an angle which is non-perpendicular to a laser beam path within the gain medium;
- a pump source configured to generate a pump beam that passes through the gain medium along the laser beam path within the gain medium;
- a wavelength tuning device configured to tune the laser system to lase at a band centered at a predetermined wavelength that can be controllably varied over a predetermined range of wavelengths;
- and
- at least one beam angle correction device configured to passively correct angular laser beam deviation due to variation of the predetermined wavelength of the wavelength tuning element.
3 more elements
A wavelength tunable laser system, comprising:
- a laser cavity defined by an end mirror disposed at a first end of the laser cavity and an output coupler disposed at a second end of the laser cavity;
- a gain medium disposed within the laser cavity including an opposed pair of beam input surfaces comprising angled surfaces at Brewster's angle relative to a laser beam path within the gain medium for a laser beam tuned to a band centered at a wavelength within a predetermined range of wavelengths;
- a pump source configured to generate a pump beam that passes through the gain medium along the laser beam path within the gain medium;
- a wavelength tuning element configured to tune the laser system to lase at a band centered at a predetermined wavelength that can be controllably varied over said predetermined range of wavelengths;
- a first beam angle correction element is disposed in the laser cavity between the gain medium and the end mirror and configured to passively correct angular laser beam deviation due to variation of the predetermined wavelength of the wavelength tuning element;
- and
- a second beam angle correction element is disposed in the laser cavity between the gain medium and the output coupler and configured to passively correct angular laser beam deviation due to variation of the predetermined wavelength of the wavelength tuning element.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.