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:
Jul. 24, 1990
Filed:
Mar. 21, 1988
Ronald R Stephens, Westlake Village, CA (US);
Richard R Craig, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Huan W Yen, Westlake, CA (US);
Richard C Lind, Woodland Hills, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A four-pass conjugate optical amplifier system and method are disclosed in which a linear polarized optical beam is directed by various optical elements through four passes of a power amplifier, preferably a diode laser structure. The beam is phase conjugated at the optical midpoint between the second and third amplifying passes, and is controlled by the optical elements so that its polarization is substantially the same during the first and second passes, and again substantially the same during the third and fourth amplifying passes. This is accomplished by a reflective coating on the back facet of the diode laser structure, with a non-reciprocal polarization rotation element located in the beam path between the phase conjugate mirror and power amplifier. For considerably enhanced power amplification, the beam may be divided into an array of subbeams, which are individually amplified by four passes through respective power amplifiers. The subbeams are processed by the optical system so that they recombine into a single coherent output beam after full amplification.