Abstract: A hair removal device utilizes a system for sensing the presence and color of skin. The system includes a skin color sensor assembly and a capacitive sensor assembly disposed in a housing. The skin color sensor assembly includes a light pipe communicating with a color sensor aperture of the housing and having one or more notches defining receiving and emitting light propagation regions, a color sensor and one or more light emitting diodes, and a holder having at least one standoff mated to the notches thereby directing light emitted by the light emitting diodes through the light pipe for reflection of an external surface and receipt by the sensor for detection of surface color. The capacitive sensor assembly includes a plurality of copper elements in proximity to a device aperture and contacting an interior surface of the housing and for detection of an object in contact with the copper elements.

Abstract: A beam homogenizing apparatus includes at least one flexible optical fiber for receiving light, the flexible optical fiber including a homogenizing output portion having a tileable cross-section, the output portion for producing a substantially homogenized intensity profile for light emitted therefrom.

Abstract: A method for processing a transparent substrate includes generating at least one laser pulse having laser parameters selected for non-ablatively changing a conductive layer disposed on the transparent substrate into a non-conductive feature, and directing the pulse to said conductive layer. A protective film may be affixed to a surface of the transparent substrate and need not be removed during the processing of the substrate. After processing, processed areas can be visually indistinguishable from unprocessed areas.

Abstract: Optical fibers that provide stable output beam sizes have core refractive indices that decrease non-monotonically from a core center to a core/cladding interface. A maximum refractive index of the core is situated at a radius of between about ½ and ¾ of the core radius so that a core center has a depressed refractive index. Such fibers are included in diode pumped solid state lasers to deliver pump laser power to a laser medium.

Abstract: Gain switched laser diode pulses are used as seed pulses for optical pulse generation. ASE is reduced by applying a prebias to the laser diodes at an amplitude less than that associated with a laser diode threshold. An electrical seed pulse having an amplitude larger than that associated with laser threshold is applied within about 10-100 ns of the prebias pulse. The resulting laser diode pulse can be amplified in a pumped, rare earth doped optical fiber, with reduced ASE.

Abstract: High power fiber lasers include large or very large mode area active fibers. Mode preserving pump combiners are situated to counter-pump the active fiber using one or more pump sources. The mode preserving pump combiners preserve single mode propagation in a signal fiber, and such combiners can be identified based on optical spectra, beam quality, or temporal response. Active fibers can also be included in a pump combiner so that the active fiber is splice free from an input end that receives a seed pulse to an output end. Peak powers of over 100 kW can be obtained.

Abstract: Laser pulses from pulsed fiber lasers are directed to an amorphous silicon layer to produce a polysilicon layer comprising a disordered arrangement of crystalline regions by repeated melting and recrystallization. Laser pulse durations of about 0.5 to 5 ns at wavelength range between about 500 nm and 1000 nm, at repetition rates of 10 kHz to 10 MHz can be used. Line beam intensity uniformity can be improved by spectrally broadening the laser pulses by Raman scattering in a multimode fiber or by applying varying phase delays to different portions of a beam formed with the laser pulses to reduce beam coherence.

Abstract: A stable, single mode fiber amplifier is described. The amplifier consists of a seed source, a passive single clad multimode fiber, an active double clad multimode fiber or a multimode fiber horn and a semiconductor laser pump source. The passive fiber is packaged on a mandrel with a compound radius of curvature such that high order modes in the fiber are stripped from the core leaving only the fundamental mode. This fiber is then spliced to a multimode active fiber of similar core diameter. By exciting only the fundamental mode of this active fiber, stable single mode amplification is achieved.

Abstract: A fiber monitoring system for detecting the occurrence of a thermal event, especially of a traumatic nature, in optical fibers while transmitting laser beams includes one or more fiber monitoring apparatuses each having a thermal sensing array supported by a holder board of a laminated dielectric material having a row of clips for retaining optical fibers in alignment with thermal sensor devices of the thermal sensing arrays. The thermal sensing arrays also have electrical circuitry elements for electrically interconnecting the thermal sensing devices in series and enabling electrically connecting the thermal sensing arrays with other circuitry to form a thermal interlock circuit for a laser system.

Abstract: A metallization layer for a semiconductor device includes a first layer made of Pt and having a thickness greater than or equal to 15 ? and less than or equal to 50 ?, and a second layer formed on the first layer and made of a plurality of metallic sub-layers such as Ti/Pt/Au. A semiconductor device fabricated from the metallization layer includes a semiconductor substrate having a top layer and mesa structure and corresponding surface for securing an insulating layer and a corresponding exposed surface, and wherein the metallization layer is deposited over the insulating layer and exposed surface. Methods for forming the metallization layer are also disclosed.

Abstract: A high power cladding light stripper and high power laser systems using the same are described. A cladding light stripper includes a housing, a section of fiber disposed in relation to the housing wherein a portion of the section of fiber has an exposed cladding region, a plurality of glue regions sequentially arranged adjacent to each other along the section of fiber and covering the exposed cladding region, and wherein at least one glue region between a first glue region and a last glue region of the plurality of glue regions has a refractive index higher or lower than both an adjacent previous glue region and an adjacent subsequent glue region.

Abstract: Optical illuminators comprise optical fibers having a gradient index core and a cladding selected so that a refractive index difference at a core/cladding interface provides a numerical aperture less than, greater than, or equal to a numerical aperture of the gradient index core. In some examples, a maximum refractive index difference in the gradient index core is substantially the same as, less than, or greater than the refractive index difference at the core/cladding interface. Illuminators based on such fibers are configured to produce optical beams with a laser diode or diode array, and to provide stable, approximately Gaussian optical fluxes at a fiber output surface.

Abstract: A stable, single mode fiber amplifier is described. The amplifier consists of a seed source, a passive single clad multimode fiber, an active double clad multimode fiber or a multimode fiber horn and a semiconductor laser pump source. The passive fiber is packaged on a mandrel with a compound radius of curvature such that high order modes in the fiber are stripped from the core leaving only the fundamental mode. This fiber is then spliced to a multimode active fiber of similar core diameter. By exciting only the fundamental mode of this active fiber, stable single mode amplification is achieved.

Abstract: An extremely versatile diode laser assembly is provided, the assembly comprised of a plurality of diode laser subassemblies mounted to a stepped cooling block. The stepped cooling block allows the fabrication of a close packed and compact assembly in which individual diode laser subassembly output beams do not interfere with one another.

Abstract: A system is provided that electrically isolates a diode laser when the health of the diode laser deteriorates past a preset value. In addition to the diode laser and its power supply, the system includes a monitoring system that monitors the voltage across the diode laser and/or the voltage across a series resistor and/or the operating temperature of the diode laser and/or one or more characteristics of the output beam of the diode laser and/or the temperature of the diode laser coolant and/or the flow rate of the diode laser coolant. The system also includes a power supply controller and associated control circuit that is activated upon receipt of a trigger signal from the monitoring system.

Abstract: An extremely versatile diode laser assembly is provided, the assembly comprised of a plurality of diode laser subassemblies mounted to a stepped cooling block. The stepped cooling block allows the fabrication of a close packed and compact assembly in which individual diode laser subassembly output beams do not interfere with one another.

Abstract: A semiconductor laser and a method of forming the same are provided. The n-side and p-side junctions are independently optimized to improve carrier flow. The material for the n-side cladding layer is selected to yield a small conduction to valance band gap offset ratio while the material for the p-side cladding layer is selected to yield a large conduction to valance band gap offset ratio.

Abstract: An optical source comprised of a stack of at least two laser diode subassemblies is provided. Each laser diode subassembly includes a submount and a multi-mode, single emitter laser diode. Each of the at least two laser diode subassemblies is mounted to a stepped mounting member such that the output beams from the at least two laser diode subassemblies are vertically displaced along the z-axis, horizontally displaced along the y-axis, and not horizontally displaced along the x-axis.

Abstract: A single piece optic for coupling the output of a diode laser array into an optical fiber array is provided. The coupling optic has a planar back surface which, during use with a diode laser array, is positioned substantially parallel to the front face of the laser array. The coupling optic is fabricated from a single substrate and is comprised of a plurality of optical elements. Depending upon the technique used to fabricate the optical elements, the individual optical elements may be trapezoidally-shaped or rectangularly-shaped. The front surface of each optical element is tilted, thus preventing reflected laser radiation from resonating within the diode laser's emitters. Preferably the wedge angle for the tilted front surface is greater than 2 mrad, thus accomplishing the goal of limiting feedback into the emitters, and less than 4 mrad, thus reducing beam steering.