Birefringent filter for use in a tunable pulsed laser cavity
US5038360A · kind A · utility
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 5, 1989 |
| Grant date | Aug 6, 1991 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 5, 2009 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S3/08004
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A birefringent filter ("BRF") unit, for use in the cavity of a tunable pulsed laser generating ultrashort pulses, including means for suppressing satellite pulses resulting from surface reflections. In one preferred embodiment, the inventive BRF has substantially parallel front and back surfaces, and is cut so that its optical axis is not parallel to its front surface. For example, the inventive BRF may be a quartz crystal having a thickness of 3 mm, with its optical axis oriented at an angle substantially equal to 50 degrees from the plane of its front surface. In a second preferred embodiment, the inventive BRF includes a relatively thick, non-birefringent component coupled with index matching material to a relatively thin birefringent component. In a third preferred embodiment, the inventive BRF includes a pair of thick birefringent components designed so that the ordinary ray of the first component becomes the extraordinary ray of the second component. In this third embodiment, the two components preferably have substantially equal birefringence N, and differ in thickness by an amount W chosen so that the overall optical phase shift induced by the inventive BRF is substantially…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.