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. 09, 2000
Filed:
May. 04, 1998
Sergei V Govorkov, Boca Raton, FL (US);
Dirk Basting, Gottingen, DE;
Lambda Physik GmbH, , DE;
Abstract
A laser system, and method of operating the same, that includes a resonant cavity that terminates at one end with a mirror and at the other end with a dispersive wavelength selector, a gain medium disposed in the resonant cavity, and a power supply that excites the gain medium to generate a laser beam that oscillates along an optical axis of the resonant cavity. The dispersive wavelength selector disperses the laser beam at different angles in a critical plane as a function of wavelength so that only a particular range of wavelengths in the beam are aligned to the optical axis and oscillate in the resonant cavity. The critical plane is parallel to the laser beam. The resonant cavity further includes a wavefront curvature compensating lens that is selectively rotatable about an axis of rotation that is perpendicular to the critical plane. The compensating lens is oriented about the axis of rotation to alter a wavefront curvature of the laser beam in the critical plane so that the wavefront curvature of the beam incident upon the wavelength selector matches the shape of the wavelength selector in the critical plane, thus minimizing a spectral linewidth of the particular range of wavelengths.