Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity incorporates optical components for a short-pulse laser. These optical components are ‘locked’ into alignment forming an optical laser cavity for flash lamp or diode laser pumping. The optical laser cavity does not need optical alignment after it is fabricated, increasing the brightness of the monoblock laser.

Abstract: A method and device for reducing the timing jitter in a passive Q-switched Nd:YAG solid state laser by spatially selective bleaching a thin sheet of a saturable absorber of Cr+4:YAG from a direction orthogonal to the direction of laser emission where the Cr+4:YAG transmission increases 18% when the bleaching probe beam is a single laser diode bar. For steady state operation of a passive Q-switched laser, the pulse-to-pulse timing jitter showed a ?12× reduction in standard deviation from 241 nsec for free running operation to 20 nsec with optical triggering.

Abstract: The compact Er:Yb:Glass Laser Cavity incorporates all optical components required for a short-pulse laser. These optical components are ‘locked’ into alignment forming an optical laser cavity for diode laser or flash lamp pumping. The optical laser cavity does not need optical alignment after it is fabricated. The improvement upon the original Er:Yb:Glass design replaces the Cobalt Spinel passive Q-switch component with a MEMS active Q-Switch component.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity incorporates optical components for a short-pulse laser. These optical components are ‘locked’ into alignment forming an optical laser cavity for flash lamp or diode laser pumping. The optical laser cavity does not need further optical alignment upon fabrication. The improvements upon the original Monoblock design replaces the Cr:YAG Q-switch component with a MEMS scanner and replaces the Nd:YAG with Nd:YLF laser material.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity incorporates optical components required for a short-pulse laser. These optical components are ‘locked’ into alignment forming an optical laser cavity for flash lamp or diode laser pumping. Optical alignment is not necessary after the optical laser cavity is fabricated. An exemplary Q-switched monoblock laser replaces the Cr:YAG Q-switch functionality with a MEMS scanner.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity incorporates optical components for a short-pulse laser. These optical components are ‘locked’ into alignment forming an optical laser cavity for flash lamp or diode laser pumping. The optical laser cavity does not need optical alignment after it is fabricated, increasing the brightness of the monoblock laser.

Abstract: A laser gain medium crystal comprising a square rod of laser gain medium material having top and bottom surfaces that are finely ground to introduce scattering surfaces to cancel parasitic lasing. The square rod of laser gain material has input and output faces and side surfaces, and portions of the side surfaces near the output face of the square rod are finely ground to introduce scattering surfaces to cancel parasitic lasing. The rest of the side surfaces of the square rod are polished.

Abstract: A system and method for registering 3D data sets is disclosed based on manual fiducial selection. The technique is useful in imaging obscured targets with 3-D imaging laser radars. For such an exemplary method, which defines a three-dimensional linear shift vector for each data voxel, four fiducials are required to completely define the mapping for a 3D space. An exemplary registration algorithm as disclosed provides an approach to automatically make fine adjustments to the 3D data registration. The tedious technique of shifting data sets relative to each other, in many degrees of freedom, is eliminated. Instead, a fine adjust is applied to the digital mapping function, through fiducial perturbation.

Abstract: A process for optically aligning a laser rangefinder that includes the steps of providing a laser rangefinder having a laser source, a photodetector lens and a photodetector, providing a fiber optic travel path, aligning the laser source to the fiber optic travel path, illuminating the photodetector with a light source, focusing the photodetector lens, coupling the fiber optic travel path to an optical light source, and aligning the fiber optic light relative to the photodetector.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity incorporates optical components for a short-pulse laser. These optical components are ‘locked’ into alignment forming an optical laser cavity for flash lamp or diode laser pumping. The optical laser cavity does not need optical alignment after it is fabricated, increasing the brightness of the monoblock laser.

Abstract: A system and method for registering 3D data sets is disclosed based on manual fiducial selection. The technique is useful in imaging obscured targets with 3-D imaging laser radars. For such an exemplary method, which defines a three-dimensional linear shift vector for each data voxel, four fiducials are required to completely define the mapping for a 3D space. An exemplary registration algorithm as disclosed provides an approach to automatically make fine adjustments to the 3D data registration. The tedious technique of shifting data sets relative to each other, in many degrees of freedom, is eliminated. Instead, a fine adjust is applied to the digital mapping function, through fiducial perturbation.

Abstract: A laser gain medium crystal comprising a square rod of laser gain medium material having top and bottom surfaces that are finely ground to introduce scattering surfaces to cancel parasitic lasing. The square rod of laser gain material has input and output faces and side surfaces, and portions of the side surfaces near the output face of the square rod are finely ground to introduce scattering surfaces to cancel parasitic lasing. The rest of the side surfaces of the square rod are polished.

Abstract: A method and device for reducing the timing jitter in a passive Q-switched Nd:YAG solid state laser by spatially selective bleaching a thin sheet of a saturable absorber of Cr+4:YAG from a direction orthogonal to the direction of laser emission where the Cr+4:YAG transmission increases 18% when the bleaching probe beam is a single laser diode bar. For steady state operation of a passive Q-switched laser, the pulse-to-pulse timing jitter showed a ?12× reduction in standard deviation from 241 nsec for free running operation to 20 nsec with optical triggering.

Abstract: A monoblock laser that has a laser cavity having a laser gain material, a Q switch optically coupled to the laser gain material, and an OPO material optically coupled to the Q switch. A laser pump is spaced from an end of the laser cavity. The laser pump has an output that is absorbed along an entire length of the laser cavity providing athermal operation without temperature control of the laser pump over the operating range of the monoblock laser.

Abstract: An electronic selectable, two color solid state laser comprising a laser diode pump and a plurality of discrete optical elements disposed serially and sharing a common optical axis. The optical components include a laser rod of gain material having a laser emission wavelength, a polarizer cube, a means for compensating for OPO crystal polarization, an electro-optic active Q-switch having input terminals for applying a voltage across the Q-switch, and an OPO crystal. The laser rod has an input end face coated with an anti-reflector at the laser diode pump wavelength and a high reflector at the laser emission wavelength. The OPO crystal has an input end face coated with an anti-reflector at the laser emission wavelength and a high reflector at the OPO wavelength, and an output end face coated with a partial reflector at the laser emission wavelength and a partial reflector at the OPO wavelength.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity includes a plurality of discrete optical components disposed serially on a substrate and sharing a common optical axis. The optical components include a laser rod of gain material, a Q-switch, an OPO crystal, and an output coupler. The output coupler has at least one convex end face to improve the beam quality.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity includes a plurality of discrete optical components disposed serially on a substrate and sharing a common optical axis. The optical components include a laser rod of gain material, a Q-switch, an OPO crystal, an output coupler, and a positive lens. The output coupler has a convex input end face and a concave output end face, and acts as the expanding lens element of a beam expander, and the positive lens completes the beam expander to improve the beam quality.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity includes a plurality of discrete optical components disposed serially on a substrate and sharing a common optical axis. The optical components include a laser rod of gain material, a Q-switch, an OPO crystal, an output coupler, and a positive lens. The output coupler has a convex input end face and a concave output end face, and acts as the expanding lens element of a beam expander, and the positive lens completes the beam expander to improve the beam quality.

Abstract: A monoblock laser cavity includes a plurality of discrete optical components disposed serially on a substrate and sharing a common optical axis. The optical components include a laser rod of gain material, a Q-switch, an OPO crystal, and an output coupler. The output coupler has at least one convex end face to improve the beam quality.

Abstract: The laser obstacle avoidance device of the present invention includes an optical head which includes a laser source which produces a laser signal, crossed cylindrical lenses and through which the laser signal is transmitted, a transceiver including a receiving lens through which a reflected laser signal is received by the transceiver, a receiver and a line filter through which the reflected laser signal is filtered, and scanners which receive the reflected laser signal; and control electronics optically connected to the optical head, wherein the control electronics comprise scanner driver electronics, range processor electronics, power converters, and a display all which produce an x-y display of the terrain scanned by the laser signal wherein the X-axis is driven by a scanner position output and the Y-axis by range data. The system was designed to avoid hazards with emphasis simplicity and low cost. The device has been employed in the field to collect data from natural and man-made objects.