Confocal optical scanning system employing a fiber laser
US5887009A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 22, 1997 |
| Grant date | Mar 23, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 22, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG02B21/0056
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A confocal optical scanning system using a flexible optical emissive fiber or fiber laser and having a lasing cavity defined within the fiber. The system in-couples a signal beam produced when a probe beam generated by the fiber laser is reflected from a scanned object back into the lasing cavity. The perturbation created in the cavity by the in-coupling of the signal beam is detected by a transducer. Specifically, the perturbation may be the signal beam itself, an oscillation mode of the cavity induced by the in-coupled signal beam or a combination of the signal beam and the probe beam. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the system also has a polarizing assembly for altering a signal polarization of the signal beam and rotate it to either a resonant polarization supported by the cavity or a non-resonant polarization not supported by the cavity.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.