United Technologies Corporation

USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Albert W Angelbeck

George R Wisner

Gary E Palma

Ronald Harold Freeman

Donald Lee Witt

Harold C Reynolds, Jr

Edward Wayne Vinje

Stuart N Mapes

A master oscillator regenerative power amplifier system is maintained in a locked state by variation of the power amplifier cavity length to minimize reverse wave radiation.

Reverse wave ring resonator control system

A laser system for equalizing the cavity length of a multiline master oscillator and the resonant power amplifiers injection-locked by the master oscillator employs two selected lines from the beam spectrum for two-wavelength interferometric control.

Cavity length control system for a multiline HEL

A method and system for automatically aligning a high power laser. The high ower laser train includes an unstable resonator cavity and two turning mirrors to direct the pointing of the output laser beam. The autoalignment system is designed to perform two alignment tasks, the maintenance of output beam pointing stability and the establishment of resonator cavity mode control, by precisely adjusting the orientation of the end mirrors of the resonator cavity and the two turning mirrors. A HeNe laser, located at the output end of the high power laser train, propagates an alignment beam back along the laser train, parallel to the high power laser train. The alignment beam is divided into two separate alignment beams by means of a mirror splitter. One of the beams is directed on an optical alignment path which includes the two turning mirrors and is delimited by two null position detectors, one on an end mirror of the resonator cavity and one at the output end of the high power laser train. The other alignment beam is directed along the optical axis of the resonator cavity on an optical alignment path delimited by two more null position detectors, one on each of the two end mirrors of the resonator cavity. Since these two optical alignment paths include all the mirrors of the high power laser train, any misalignments in these mirrors will result in alignment beam deflections. The beam deflections are detected by the four null position detectors and translated, by means of an analog matrix control device, into corrective, correlative tilt adjustments to the mirrors of the high power laser train.

Autoalignment system for laser with unstable resonator

Active laser mirror systems and methods for achieving near diffraction limited transmission of laser radiation by actively controlling a reflective surface are disclosed. The apparatus involved in the active mirror system includes a mirror having a deformable surface, a plurality of actuators attached at preselected locations to the nonreflecting side of the mirror, a control assembly for performing logic and providing drive signals to the actuators and a sensor system. The method of achieving the improved transmission includes setting the contour of a deformable reflective surface in accordance with predetermined data, reflecting the transmitted beam off the surface enroute to the target, optically monitoring the surface to determine operational changes thereon, computing corrective data, and applying appropriate changes to the mirror surface.

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Glastonbury, CT, United States of America

Albert W Angelbeck