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:
Apr. 10, 2007
Filed:
Dec. 29, 2003
Daniel J. Sox, Orange, CA (US);
Jeffrey H. Hunt, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Daniel J. Sox, Orange, CA (US);
Jeffrey H. Hunt, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
The Boeing Company, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A diode laser for providing a high-energy coherent light beam suitably includes an array of laser diodes, each producing a laser beamlet. The beamlets are provided to a spatial light modulator (SLM) with an array of pixels, each pixel corresponding to a portion of the light beam. The phase variation across the light beam wavefront is monitored at a detector, and a feedback signal indicative of the phase variation is provided to control electronics. The control electronics process the feedback signal to modulate a local index of refraction within one or more pixels of the SLM to reduce the variation in phase across the beam wavefront. Because phase variations across the beam wavefront are reduced, relatively large diode arrays can be formulated, thereby resulting in relatively high powered diode lasers.