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:
May. 16, 1989
Filed:
Jan. 22, 1988
Niels O Young, Eagle, ID (US);
General Scanning, Inc., Watertown, MA (US);
Abstract
A reference mirror (50) in an interferometer is fixed in position with respect to a laser (34). A refractive block (40) having parallel upper and lower surfaces is mounted for pivoting about a pivot axis (60) parallel to the reference mirror (40). The refractive block (40) is disposed in the path of the light beam (36) produced by the laser (34), and it includes a partially reflective surface (42) on its lower face that divides the incident beam (36) into two components (44 and 46), which travel along different paths, in which they are reflected from different portions (48 and 54) of the surface of the reference mirror (50) and from different portions (52 and 56) of a reflective surface on the upper face of the refractive block (40). A second partially reflective coating (58) rejoins portions of the two components to form an exit beam (32) in which the radiation from the two beams interferes in accordance with the angle of the refractive block (40). The angle that the exit beam (32) makes with the surface of the reference mirror (50) is independent of the angle of the refractive block (40).