The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 18, 1983
Filed:
Apr. 17, 1981
Alexander E Kaplan, Cambridge, MA (US);
John E Bjorkholm, Holmdel, NJ (US);
Peter W Smith, Colts Neck, NJ (US);
Walter J Tomlinson, III, Holmdel, NJ (US);
Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
Many prior art bistable optical devices require resonant optical cavities and are therefore limited in their operation due to the long lifetimes associated with their high-finesse cavities. A bistable optical device that does not use a resonant cavity is disclosed wherein a nonlinear medium whose index of refraction increases with increased light intensity is arranged to have input and output faces into which and out of which a laser beam having a nonuniform spatial profile can be propagated. A mirror having a predetermined area of reflectivity is positioned with respect to the output face of a nonlinear medium so as to reflect only the light energy that propagates in an area at the output face that is approximately equal to the area which the beam presents at this face when the beam is propagating at a critical power level, that is, when the beam is self-trapped.