Abstract: In a CO2 gas-discharge slab-laser comprising an unstable resonator constrained by a waveguide formed by planar discharge-electrodes, parasitic side-lobes appear on either side of a delivered main mode in a direction perpendicular to the electrode plane. A rotationally adjustable aperture is provided for transmitting the main mode and blocking the parasitic side-lobes.
Abstract: A mode-locked fiber MOPA delivers pulses of laser-radiation. A super-continuum generator including a bulk spectral-broadening element and a negative group-delay dispersion (NGDD) device is arranged to receive a pulse from the MOPA and cause the pulse to make a predetermined number of sequential interactions with the broadening element and the NGDD device. After making the predetermined interactions, the pulse is delivered from the super-continuum generator with a very broad spectral-bandwidth and a very short duration.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 14, 2013
Date of Patent:
January 19, 2016
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Norman Hodgson, Dmitri Simanovski, Andrei Starodoumov
Abstract: A laser includes an optically pumped semiconductor OPS gain-structure. The apparatus has a laser-resonator which includes a mode-locking device for causing the laser to deliver mode-locked pulses. The resonator has a total length selected such that the mode-locked pulses are delivered at a pulse repetition frequency less than 150 MHz. An optical arrangement within the resonator provides that radiation circulating in the resonator makes a plurality of incidences on the OPS gain-structure with a time less than the excited-state lifetime of the gain-structure between successive incidences.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
May 15, 2014
Date of Patent:
January 12, 2016
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Ian MacGillivray, Andrea Caprara, Sergei Govorkov
Abstract: An optical amplifier includes a solid state gain-element. The gain-element is pumped by pump-radiation from a diode-laser bar. The diode-laser radiation is delivered from the diode-laser bar to the gain-element entirely via a tapered light-guide which guides the radiation only in a fast-axis direction of the diode laser bar. The tapering of the light-guide reduces fast-axis divergence of the pump-radiation by about a factor of ten. The pump-radiation is delivered to the gain-element as a line of radiation homogenized in the fast-axis direction.
Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus may include an optical fiber that may have a surface non-normal to a longitudinal axis of a distal end portion of the optical fiber. The surface may define a portion of an interface configured to redirect electromagnetic radiation propagated from within the optical fiber and incident on the interface to a direction offset from the longitudinal axis. The apparatus may also include a doped silica cap that may be fused to the optical fiber such that the surface of the optical fiber may be disposed within a cavity defined by the doped silica cap.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 5, 2014
Date of Patent:
December 8, 2015
Assignees:
Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc., Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Jeffrey W. Zerfas, Richard P. Tumminelli
Abstract: An optical parametric oscillator includes one unidirectional enhancement resonator for optical pump-radiation and a second unidirectional resonator at least partially coaxial with the enhancement resonator. An optically nonlinear crystal is located in the coaxial portion of the resonators and converts the optical pump-radiation to signal radiation having a wavelength longer than that of the pump radiation and idler radiation having a wavelength longer than that of the signal radiation. The second resonator resonates the signal-wavelength radiation and delivers a fraction of that radiation as output radiation.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 20, 2014
Date of Patent:
November 17, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Andrea Caprara, Luis A. Spinelli, Arnaud Lepert
Abstract: Pulses from a mode-locked Yb-doped laser (12) are spectrally broadened in an optical fiber (28), and temporally compressed in a grating compressor (32), then frequency-doubled (34) and used to pump an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) (40). The OPO output is tunable over a wavelength range from about 600 nm to about 1100 nm. Mode-locking in the Yb-doped laser (12) is accomplished with a SESAM (14) or by Kerr-lens mode-locking with a Kerr medium (82) and a hard aperture (84).
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 1, 2012
Date of Patent:
November 17, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Norman Hodgson, Dmitri Simanovski, Andrei Starodoumov
Abstract: A laser includes a Ti:sapphire gain-medium in the form of a thin-disk. The thin-disk gain-medium is optically pumped by pump-radiation pulses having a wavelength in the green region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The pump-radiation pulses have a duration less than twice the excited-state lifetime of the gain-medium.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 16, 2014
Date of Patent:
October 13, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Norman Hodgson, Michael Hertwig, H. Yang Pang
Abstract: Systems and methods of high efficiency amplification of pulsed laser output for high energy ultra-short pulse laser systems are provided herein. According to some embodiments, methods for amplifying pulsed laser output for high energy ultra-short pulse laser systems include receiving pulsed laser output and amplifying the pulsed laser output by propagating the pulsed laser output through a non-silica based gain medium that has been doped with a concentration of rare earth ions, wherein the concentration of the rare earth ions within the gain medium is approximately greater than one percent by weight.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 9, 2012
Date of Patent:
September 29, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Xiang Peng, Kyungbum Kim, Michael M. Mielke
Abstract: Laser apparatus includes a laser the output of which is formed into a collimated beam then focused into a transport fiber at a particular effective numerical aperture. A parallel plate is located in the collimated beam and can be variably inclined with respect to the collimated beam for varying the effective numerical aperture of the radiation focused into the fiber. In one embodiment, a second parallel plate is located in the focused beam, and can be variably inclined with respect to the focused beam for aligning the focused beam with the optical fiber.
Abstract: An optical apparatus for delivering to a flow-cell of a flow-cytometer a plurality of beams of laser radiation each thereof having a different wavelength. The apparatus includes a dispersion compensation-prism and a plurality of directing-prisms equal in number to the number of laser-beam. The directing-prisms are arranged to direct the laser radiation beams directly therethrough into the dispersion compensation-prism as converging fan of beams in a first plane. The beams are transmitted by the compensation-prism as a converging fan of beams intersecting then proceeding as a diverging fan of beams in the first plane. A spherical focusing lens is arranged cooperative with a cylindrical lens for focusing the plurality of laser-beams as a plurality of spaced apart elongated focal spots in a plane in which the cytometer flow-cell is located.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 15, 2014
Date of Patent:
July 28, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Lei Meng, Jordan Wesley Crist, Michele Wayne Winz, James Schloss
Abstract: A CW fiber-laser includes a gain fiber having a reflector proximity-coupled to one end, with the other end left uncoated. A laser resonator is defined by the reflector and the uncoated end of the gain-fiber. Pump-radiation from two fast-axis diode-laser bar stacks is combined and focused into the uncoated end of the gain-fiber for energizing the fiber. Laser radiation resulting from the energizing is delivered from the uncoated end of the gain-fiber and separated from the pump-radiation by a dichroic mirror.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 29, 2011
Date of Patent:
July 14, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
John D. Minelly, Sergei V. Govorkov, Luis A. Spinelli, Douglas Anthon, Jay Michael Ingalls
Abstract: A beam combiner for combining laser-beams of different colors along a common path includes a directing-prism for each of the laser-beams and one combining-prism. The directing-prisms are arranged to transmit the laser-beams to the combining-prism. The directing-prisms and the combining-prism are configured and arranged with respect to each other such that the directing-prism transmits the beams along the common path.
Abstract: A water-cooled heat-sink for a diode-laser bar includes a copper-cooling-unit having an integral mount thereon for the diode-laser bar. The copper-cooling-unit is attached to a steel base-unit. The base-unit and the cooling-unit are cooperatively configured such that at least one cooling-channel is formed in the cooling-unit by the attachment of the base-unit to the cooling-unit. The cooling-channel is positioned to cool the mount when cooling-water flows through the cooling-channel.
Abstract: A mode-locked fiber laser has a resonator including a gain-fiber, a mode-locking element, and a spectrally-selective dispersion compensating device. The resonator can be a standing-wave resonator or a traveling-wave resonator. The dispersion compensating device includes only one diffraction grating combined with a lens and a mirror to provide a spatial spectral spread. The numerical aperture of the gain-fiber selects which portion of the spectral spread can oscillate in the resonator.
Abstract: A laser-radiation sensor includes a copper substrate on which is grown an oriented polycrystalline buffer layer surmounted by an oriented polycrystalline sensor-element of an anisotropic transverse thermoelectric material. An absorber layer, thermally connected to the sensor-element, is heated by laser-radiation to be measured and communicates the heat to the sensor-element, causing a thermal gradient across the sensor-element. Spaced-apart electrodes in electrical contact with the sensor-element sense a voltage corresponding to the thermal gradient as a measure of the incident laser-radiation power. At least two protection layers are positioned between the sensor layer and the absorber layer.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 17, 2013
Date of Patent:
June 16, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Robert Semerad, Erik Krous, James Schloss
Abstract: A laser-radiation sensor includes a copper substrate on which is grown an oriented polycrystalline buffer layer surmounted by an oriented polycrystalline sensor-element of an anisotropic transverse thermoelectric material. An absorber layer, thermally connected to the sensor-element, is heated by laser-radiation to be measured and communicates the heat to the sensor-element, causing a thermal gradient across the sensor-element. Spaced-apart electrodes in electrical contact with the sensor-element sense a voltage corresponding to the thermal gradient as a measure of the incident laser-radiation power.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 17, 2013
Date of Patent:
April 21, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
Robert Semerad, Erik Krous, James Schloss
Abstract: A CW ytterbium-doped fiber-laser includes a gain-fiber having a reflector proximity-coupled to one end, with the other end left uncoated. A laser resonator is defined by the reflector and the uncoated end of the gain-fiber. Pump-radiation from fast-axis diode-laser bar-stacks emitting at 915 nm and 976 nm is combined and focused into the uncoated end of the gain-fiber for energizing the fiber. Laser radiation resulting from the energizing is delivered from the uncoated end of the gain-fiber and separated from the pump-radiation by a dichroic mirror.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 2, 2012
Date of Patent:
April 21, 2015
Assignee:
Coherent, Inc.
Inventors:
John D. Minelly, Sergei V. Govorkov, Luis A. Spinelli, Douglas William Anthon, Jay Michael Ingalls
Abstract: A diode-laser bar package includes a water cooled metal heat-sink. An electrical-insulator-plate is bonded to the heat-sink with a soft solder. A metal sub-mount and a first electrode are bonded, spaced apart, on the electrical-insulator-plate. A solder-bridge fills the space between the first electrode and the sub-mount. A diode-laser bar is bonded to the sub-mount. A second electrode is bonded to the first electrode with an electrically insulating bond. Electrical connection between the second electrode and the diode-laser bar is made by a plurality of wire-bond electrical leads.
Abstract: Optical apparatus includes a diode-laser bar stack having N fast-axis stacked diode-laser bars cooperative with a parallel sided transparent stacking plate. The stacking plate receives N original beams from the N diode-laser bars and converts the N beams to 2N fast-axis stacked beams having one-half of a width the original beams and one-half of a fast-axis spacing between the original beams.