Gte Government Systems Corporation

Gte Products Corporation

Steve Guch, Jr

Leonard W Braverman

David J Clark

Robert W Jones

Phillip J Gardner

Timothy A Dave

Richard J Sojka

John J Smith

The efficiency of an optically pumped solid state laser is substantially improved with a controlled geometry fluorescent converter between the pump light source and the lasing medium. Fluorescent materials have the capability of absorbing broadband pumping radiation, shifting it in wavelength and re-emitting it in the absorption band of the selected solid state laser medium. Use of angular formations having the converter surface facing the laser medium reduces fluorescent light trapping within the converter due to internal reflection thereby greatly increasing the total light output of the converter and thus the efficiency of the laser.

Laser with controlled geometry fluorescent converter

An adjustable optical mounting assembly, particularly suited for folding or periscope optics, provides for optical beam motion in three axes using a bearing having a spherical surface. This invention greatly simplifies the mount mechanism and operting procedure, reduces the size, and provides enhanced stability and lockability relative to comparable conventional devices.

Adjustable optical mounting assembly

The output of a laser oscillator is doubly passed through a birefringement medium, a quarter-wave plate and a laser amplifier by reflection from a phase conjugate mirror, the birefringent medium being between the oscillator and the plate in the path of the initial and reflected oscillator output. The birefringent medium divides the oscillator output into a first set of orthogonal polarization components (rays) and refracts one of them at a first angle successively through the plate and amplifier for reflection from the mirror through the amplifier, plate and medium. The reflected ray is amplified and then divided by the medium into a second set of orthogonal ray components which exit the medium at different angles away from the oscillator. In another embodiment, a second quarter-wave plate is added between the amplifier and mirror, and in a third embodiment the amplifier is positioned between the oscillator and the birefringent medium. These designs represent a unique means of separating in angle the oscillator input beam and the phase-conjugated/amplified beam. This results in a physical positional separation of the two, which allows the latter beam to be readily extracted and utilized in a useful fashion, and prevents potentially damaging reflections from being fed back into the oscillator.

Apparatus for and method of extracting an output beam from a laser system

The exterior surfaces of a laser rod and pump lamp are covered with a highly reflective metal foil to prevent light leakage from the rod and lamp. The laser rod and pump lamp operate within a cavity inside a heat sink. Between the metal foil and the housing is a thermally conductive fluidic material selected to provide a tailored thermal impedance between the heat sink and the rod and pump to optimize the steady state temperatures of these components. The conductive fluid is not circulated but is contained to act as a simple heat conductor. The optically reflective and the heat transfer functions of the laser pumping operation are essentially separate from each other, enabling selection of materials for these respective functions to enhance performance of the laser and substantially simplify its construction.

Conduction cooled solid state laser

Laser apparatus having a very narrow (&lt;1A) spectral output comprises a laser cavity having a metal vapor cell as one of the reflecting elements. This cell reflects the laser beam over a narrow wavelength region in the vicinity of one of the metal vapor's resonant absorption lines and achieves frequency locking to an atomic resonance line without any external frequency sensors or feedback loops.

Narrow bandwidth laser apparatus

A pulsed or CW laser is rapidly switched to operate at one or more selectable wavelengths by means of intracavity insertion of beam dispersion and focussing elements and an apertured focal plane mask and shutter assembly. The laser beam has an axis and is dispersed into components or sub-beams having different axes and representing different wavelengths, the sub-beams being focussed to substantially reduced diameters on the focal plane mask at points, respectively, at which apertures are formed. Movable shutters adjacent to the respective apertures control alternate opening of and closing of the apertures and selectively permit the laser to resonate at at least one of a plurality of wavelengths corresponding to that of the sub-beam passing through an open aperture. Mask apertures having very small diameters (&lt;50 microns) and separations are achieved enabling switching between different operating wavelengths in milliseconds. By focussing the sub-beams on the focal plane of the focussing element, the spatial distribution of the sub-beams at infinity is transformed to the focal plane thereby enhancing spectral selectivity with minimum space requirements.

Multiple wavelength laser

A conduction cooled solid state laser comprises a laser rod and a pump lamp within a pump cavity in a housing constituting a heat sink, the remote exterior surfaces of the rod and lamp being covered by highly reflective metal foils in intimate contact with those surfaces and backed by a thermally conductive material between the foil and housing that is selected to provide a tailored thermal impedance. The foil acts as a highly efficient reflector and as a thermal contact element between the heat source (rod or lamp) and backing material, the latter, in either solid or fluid form, being selected to provide the desired thermal impedance between the source and sink to optimize component temperatures. The optically reflective and the heat transfer functions of the pumping operation are essentially separate from each other, enabling selection of materials for these respective functions to enhance performance of the laser and substantially simplify its construction.

A laser electrode assembly comprises an elongated bar having a plurality of longitudinally spaced sockets and is removably secured to a carrier which is anchored to the laser base and has a like number of plugs resiliently press-fitted within the sockets, respectively. Each plug has opposed sides to which are fastened a plurality of outwardly curved resilient fingers extending parallel to the direction of insertion of the plugs into the sockets. Each socket has a width less than the overall width of the plug and finger combination so that the fingers resiliently frictionally engage the bar within each socket. The bar is readily removed from the carrier for maintenance and repair purposes by prying the former from the plugs without necessitating removal of screws or bolts and thereafter passing the bar through the window opening aligned with the discharge gap.

Growing community of inventors

Saratoga, CA, United States of America

Steve Guch, Jr