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:
Jun. 17, 1997
Filed:
Jul. 09, 1996
Edward D Reed, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Coherent, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A folded Q-switched laser cavity uses total internal reflections of prisms to fold the intracavity beam. The index of refraction and the orientation of the prisms are selected to induce a predetermined phase delay between the two orthogonal polarization components of the linearly polarized intracavity beam. The predetermined phase delay rotates the intracavity beam polarization to an orthogonal direction such that an intracavity polarizer rejects the beam and the laser is held off from lasing. An electro-optic Q-switch cell is intermittently turned 'on' whereby a second predetermined phase delay is induced onto the intracavity beam. The combination of the two predetermined phase delays results in a beam polarization orientation that is not rejected by the polarizer and the laser is not held off from lasing.