Coherent, Inc.

California Institute of Technology

Demaria Electrooptics Systems, Inc.

Other

United Technologies Corporation

Terabit Communications, L.l.c.

Eric R Mueller

Vernon A Seguin

Lanny Laughman

Christian J Shackleton

Leon A Newman

Peter P Chenausky

Gongxue Hua

Richard A Hart

Peter H Siegel

Robert J Dengler

Raymond Michaud

William A Veronesi

Anthony J DeMaria

John T Kennedy

Joel Fontanella

Adrian Papanide

Frederick T Olender

Robert Henschke

Ronald Straayer

Michael Alexander Bellos

David E Brown

Christian Shackleton

A carbon dioxide gas-discharge slab-laser is assembled in a laser-housing. The laser-housing is formed from a hollow extrusion. An interior surface of the extrusion provides a ground electrode of the laser. Another live electrode is located within the extrusion, electrically insulated from and parallel to the ground electrode, forming a discharge-gap of the slab-laser. The electrodes are spaced apart by parallel ceramic strips. Neither the extrusion, nor the live electrode, include fluid coolant channels. The laser-housing is cooled by fluid-cooled plates attached to the outside thereof.

Conductively-cooled slab laser

A system for a welding apparatus including a welding cup; a hollow tubular adapter body extending longitudinally from a first end to a second end, an external surface of the adapter body defining one or more grooves extending about a circumference thereof and longitudinally disposed between the first and second end; and one or more O-rings configured to be installed about the adapter body and received in each of the one or more grooves; wherein the first end or the second end of the adapter body is engageable with a welding torch head and wherein the welding cup is configured to receive the other of the first end and the second end of the adapter body therein, the welding cup extending longitudinally along the adapter body such that the one or more O-rings is disposed between the adapter body and the welding cup.

Adapter mechanism and a related system for a welding apparatus

A carbon dioxide gas-discharge slab-laser is assembled in a laser-housing. The laser-housing is formed from a hollow extrusion. An interior surface of the extrusion provides a ground electrode of the laser. Another live electrode is located within the extrusion, electrically insulated from and parallel to the ground electrode, forming a discharge-gap of the slab-laser. The electrodes are spaced apart by parallel ceramic strips. Neither the extrusion, nor the live electrode, include any direct fluid-cooling means. The laser-housing is cooled by fluid-cooled plates attached to the outside thereof.

Laser-drilling apparatus includes a gas-discharge for laser emitting laser-radiation pulses, and two acousto-optic modulators (AOMs). The laser radiation pulses are characterized as having two temporal central portions between temporal leading and trailing edge portions. The AOMs are arranged to spatially separate the central temporal portions of the pulses from each other and from the leading and trailing edge portions of the pulses.

Pulse-dividing method and apparatus for a pulsed carbon monoxide laser

Laser-machining apparatus includes a carbon monoxide (CO) laser emitting a beam of laser-radiation having forty-four different wavelength components and optical elements for delivering the radiation to workpiece. An acousto-optic modulator is provided for modulating the beam on the workpiece. A birefringent plate is provided in the beam transported to the workpiece for randomly polarizing radiation incident on the workpiece. A minimum distance of the workpiece from the laser, and the number of different-wavelength components in the laser beam provides that no optical isolator is required for preventing feedback of radiation into the laser.

Carbon monoxide laser machining system

A carbon dioxide waveguide-laser includes an elongated resonator unit and an elongated power-supply unit. The resonator and power-supply units are spaced by a cooling unit including a plurality of longitudinally extending, spaced-apart fins, with fans arranged to drive air through the spaces between the fins.

Air-cooled carbon-dioxide laser

A carbon dioxide waveguide-laser includes an elongated resonator compartment and an elongated power supply compartment. The resonator and power-supply compartments are separated by a water-cooled heat sink.

Water-cooled carbon-dioxide laser

Apparatus for drilling a via-hole in a printed circuit board (PCB) includes a carbon monoxide laser deliver laser radiation pulses. The pulses have a relatively broad wavelength-range, and slow rising and falling edges. The rising and falling edges of the pulses are clipped using and acousto-optic modulator. A dispersion-compensator compensates for dispersion in the clipped pulses introduced by the AOM. Achromatic focusing optics focus the dispersion-compensated, clipped pulses on the PCB for the via-hole drilling.

Via-hole drilling in a printed circuit board using a carbon monoxide laser

A THz-frequency heterodyne imaging method is used to remotely detect objects concealed in or under a person's clothing. One THz-frequency beam is scanned over a person being examined. A portion of the beam penetrates the persons clothing and is reflected by an object concealed under the person's clothing. The reflected portion the beam is mixed with another beam of THz-frequency radiation having a different frequency to provide a signal having an intermediate frequency (IF) including image data representative of the concealed object.

Detection of hidden objects by terahertz heterodyne laser imaging

Through the use of a relatively inexpensive third mirror on a novel folded hybrid unstable resonator configuration, the optimum output coupling for a given laser design can be explored quickly and easily with a minimum of intracavity mirror alignment. No changes in either the radii of curvature of the three cavity optics or their spacing are required for this exploration. In addition to providing techniques for purposefully and systematically introducing mirror edge effects or avoiding edges effects altogether, the invention provides that output beams of different width can be advantageously explored in a relatively simple and straightforward manner. The invention provides that higher geometric magnification cavity designs may be made compatible with low diffraction output coupling in a configuration that uses only three totally reflecting optics.

Unstable resonator with variable output coupling

The present invention relates to sub-millimeter wave frequency heterodyne imaging systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a sub-millimeter wave frequency heterodyne detector system for imaging the magnitude and phase of transmitted power through or reflected power off of mechanically scanned samples at sub-millimeter wave frequencies.

Sub-millimeter wave frequency heterodyne detector system

An output beam from a laser is directed into an acousto-optic cell. The laser beam includes repeated sequences of two or more pulses. The acousto-optic cell is sequentially driven by RF voltages at two or more frequencies. A portion of the laser output beam is diffracted by the acousto-optic cell at two or more different angles to the laser output beam. This provides two or more secondary beams. One of the secondary beams includes only the first pulses of the sequences; the other includes only the second pulses of the sequences. The duration of the pulses in the laser beam is controlled to control time-averaged power in the secondary beams.

Apparatus for providing multiple time-division multiplexed independently controllable pulsed beams from a single, pulsed laser output-beam

A method of combining beams from a plurality of laser resonators includes frequency modulating the output of each of the lasers with one or more of the lasers frequency modulated out-of-phase with the others. The frequency modulated beams are directed along parallel spaced-apart paths and overlap in a plane along the paths to form a combined beam having a flat-topped intensity distribution.

Incoherent combination of laser beams

An improved laser system includes a sealed-off, RF excited, diffusion cooled, high pressure, short pulsed, high peak power waveguide and slab COlaser that avoids problems typically associated with obtaining a diffused discharge at high gas pressures, without arcing and without corona, while maintaining the unsaturated gain and gas temperature experienced at low pressures and scaling to higher pressures. Such a system has a long operating life-time, and is capable of operation at high gas pressures to obtain relative fast rise and fall time pulses. The system emits relatively short pulse widths, with pulse energies up to and exceeding 30 mJ, with reasonably high pulse repetition rates. The system also has a low pulsed RF power duty cycle, thereby enabling the generation of high peak power pulses, as well as reasonable average power and reasonably high peak powers.

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West Suffield, CT, United States of America

Eric R Mueller