Patent · US Expired

Refractive optical system that converts a laser beam to a collimated flat-top beam

US6295168A · kind A · utility

43Cited by
5References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 15, 1999
Grant dateSep 25, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 15, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG03F7/70075
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An optical system having a first positive optical element having an aspherical surface; and a second positive optical element having an aspherical surface. The first and second optical elements are arranged in a Keplerian configuration. The aspheric surface of the second optical element is related to the aspheric surface of the first optical element by a ray-tracing function that maps substantially all of an input light beam that is incident to the first optical element to a collimated output light beam that is output from the second optical element. The input light beam has a first axially-symmetric intensity distribution, such as a Gaussian intensity distribution, and the output light beam has a second axially-symmetric intensity distribution, such as a continuous, sigmoidal intensity distribution. Preferably, the output light beam has a Fermi-Dirac intensity distribution, and the ray-tracing function maps the input light beam to the output beam to a 1/e.sup.6 intensity radius of the input light beam.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.