Yeda Research and Develpment & Co. Ltd

Elop Eletro-optics Industries Ltd.

Erez Hasman

Asher Albert Friesem

Yochay Danziger

Nir Davidson

Moshe Oron

Ram Oron

Shmuel Blit

Victor Weiss

An optical resonator supporting two sets of simultaneously co-existent oscillation modes (and), having polarizations orthogonal to each other. Mode control elements (and), such as apertures and phase elements, are introduced into the resonator to allow only preferred modes to exist. The placement and orientation of the sets are designed such that the high intensity zones of one set fall on the nodes or low intensity zones of the other set in an interlaced pattern. Thus, in a laser resonator, better utilization of the gain medium () is achieved and the beam quality and brightness over multimode lasing are improved. This configuration improves the performance of high Fresnel number resonators, in both pulsed and continuous lasers, for applications such as scribing, drilling, cutting, target designation and rangefinding. An application of the intra-cavity coherent summation of orthogonally polarized modes is described, whereby azimuthally or radially polarized beams may be obtained.

Optical resonators with orthogonally polarized modes

A multilevel diffractive optical element comprising a base and a plurality of phase zones having phase levels of a substantially identical height h, each phase zone being defined by a local modulation depth d and a local number of phase levels &xgr;&equals;d/h, the local number of phase levels &xgr; per phase zone being a real number, an integer of which defines the number of complete levels in the phase zone, which complete levels have identical widths, and a fraction of which, in at least one phase zone, defines an incomplete level which is narrower than the complete levels, said local number of phase levels &xgr;&equals;&xgr;(x, y) varying among different phase zones so as to provide corresponding variation of said local modulation depth d&equals;d(x, y) whereby local diffraction efficiencies and consequently an overall diffraction efficiency of the optical element is arbitrarily controlled.

Multilevel diffractive optical element

The invention provides a near-field photochromic device for a supra-density optical memory, comprising a scanner carrying a data storage medium, an optical head having a tip, to be used for recording, readout and erasing, and located in close proximity to the data storage medium, and at least two lasers, alternatingly optically alignable with the optical head, wherein the data storage medium is a film consisting of a photochromic compound and wherein the distance between the tip and the data storage medium is within the limits of the near field of the optical head.

Supra-density optical photochromic rewrite data access system

Optical resonator with spiral optical elements

A triangulation optical system and method for determining at least one coordinate of a surface of an object, along at least one coordinate axis which is substantially transverse to the surface. The method includes the steps of providing incident light of a substantially wide wavelength bandwidth propagating along the axis. Passing the light through an axially dispersing optics so that the light of different wavelengths is focussed at different locations relative to the axis. The different locations defining a multi-colored measuring area and a distance between extreme locations along the axis defining a depth of measuring range. Further, off-axis imaging of the measuring area, detecting intensity of the image and determining the coordinate of the intersection of the surface with the measuring area.

Method and apparatus for color-coded optical profilometer

A multilayer optical disk system, which includes an optical disk unit having a number of connected optical disks. A number of light sources, such as diode lasers, are used to provide a number of light beams of different wavelengths. A wavelength multiplexer combines the light beams into a single beam which is then axially dispersed so that light of different wavelengths are simultaneously focuses onto the different optical disks. A wavelength demultiplexer splits light reflected from the optical disks according to wavelength to produce separate beams which are then separately detected.

Method and apparatus for storage and retrieval with multilayer optical

A method of designing a holographic optical element (diffractive grating) that transforms a set of waves into another set of waves in order to minimize aberrations in the phase of the output wavefront, includes the steps: (a) define continuous input parameters that characterize the propagation vector components of the incoming wavefront and the desired output wavefront; (b) formulate integral equations for the optimal grating vector components; and (c) solve the integral equations for the optimal grating vector components to minimize the difference between the actual and desired output wavefronts.

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Kiryat Ono, Israel

Erez Hasman