Broadly tunable, high repetition rate solid state lasers and uses thereof
US5121398A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 23, 1990 |
| Grant date | Jun 9, 1992 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 23, 2010 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S3/0933
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
Solid state and dye lasers are described which are tunable over a wide spectral region, are operable at high repetition rate, are uniformly narrow in spectral width over the tuning range, and produce a spatially uniform, single longitudinal mode beam. In one embodiment having a simple grazing-incidence cavity, the laser comprises: (a) a longitudinal pump beam with a KiloHertz (KHz) repetition rate; (b) a resonating cavity comprising a first fixed mirror, a diffraction grating, and a second rotatable mirror; and (c) an active solid state or dye medium within the cavity. In this embodiment, (i) the pump beam is passed through the fixed mirror and directed at the active medium; (ii) the emission from the active medium strikes the grating near a grazing angle; (iii) the rotatable mirror is placed at a first order diffraction position from the grating and reflects the desired wavelength radiation back into the cavity; and (iv) the output is derived from the grating at the zeroeth diffraction order. In a preferred embodiment the active medium is a titanium:sapphire crystal and the pump beam is generated by a Nd:YLF laser. One application of the preferred embodiment is for laser isotope s…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.