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:
Nov. 03, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 13, 1997
Robert R Rice, Chesterfield, MO (US);
Mark S Zediker, Florissant, MO (US);
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, St. Louis, MO (US);
Abstract
A phased array Raman laser amplifier includes a beam generator for generating a fundamental laser beam and a Raman seed frequency laser beam, and a fiber optic laser amplifier array for forming a diffraction limited output laser beam at the Raman seed frequency by amplifying the fundamental laser beam to a power level corresponding to the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) threshold to thereby pump the SRS process and provide Raman gain to the Raman seed frequency laser beam. The fiber optic laser amplifier includes a beam splitter receiving the fundamental laser beam and the Raman seed frequency laser beam and generating N secondary fundamental and N Raman seed frequency laser beams, N parallel rare earth doped optical fiber sections, each of the optical fiber sections amplifying a respective one of the N secondary fundamental laser beams to thereby produce N tertiary laser beams at the power level corresponding to the Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) threshold to thereby pump the SRS process and provide Raman gain to the N Raman seed frequency laser beams to thereby produce N amplified Raman seed frequency laser beams, and an optical combiner for receiving at least the N Raman seed frequency laser beams and for generating the diffraction limited output laser beam at the Raman seed frequency. Preferably, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2. A method for operating the phased array Raman laser amplifier is also described.