Abstract: The invention describes a laser device (100) enabling controlled emission of individual laser beams (194). The laser device (100) comprises an optically pumped extended cavity laser with one gain element whereby a multitude of pump lasers (110) are provided in order to generate independent pump beams (191) and thus corresponding laser beams (194). The laser device (100) may be used to enable simplified or improved laser systems (500) as, for example, two or three-dimensional laser printers. The pump laser (110) may be VCSEL and the laser (160) may be a VECSEL monolithically integrated with the pump VCSEL array on the same substrate. Pump mirrors (140) and external cavity mirror (150) may be integrated into a single optical reflector with regions having different curvature. The laser emission is controlled by the pump light, i.e. transversal shape of the laser beam and/or number of laser beams is controlled by switching on/off the individual pump lasers (110).

Abstract: An apparatus (1) for profiling the depth of a surface of a target object (30), having a two-dimensional array of lasers (5), an optical device (15) for projecting a two-dimensional illumination pattern (31) onto an area of the surface of the target object, an image capture device (10) arranged to capture an image of the two-dimensional illumination pattern projected onto the area of the surface of the target object and a processor (25) configured to process the captured image in order to reconstruct a depth profile of the two-dimensional area of the surface of the target object from the image captured by the image capture device.

Abstract: The invention describes a laser device (100) enabling controlled emission of individual laser beams (194). The laser device (100) comprises an optically pumped extended cavity laser with one gain element whereby a multitude of pump lasers (110) are provided in order to generate independent pump beams (191) and thus corresponding laser beams (194). The laser device (100) may be used to enable simplified or improved laser systems (500) as, for example, two or three-dimensional laser printers. The pump laser (110) may be VCSEL and the laser (160) may be a VECSEL monolithically integrated with the pump VCSEL array on the same substrate. Pump mirrors (140) and external cavity mirror (150) may be integrated into a single optical reflector with regions having different curvature. The laser emission is controlled by the pump light, i.e. transversal shape of the laser beam and/or number of laser beams is controlled by switching on/off the individual pump lasers (110).

Abstract: An apparatus (1) for profiling the depth of a surface of a target object (30), having a two-dimensional array of lasers (5), an optical device (15) for projecting a two-dimensional illumination pattern (31) onto an area of the surface of the target object, an image capture device (10) arranged to capture an image of the two-dimensional illumination pattern projected onto the area of the surface of the target object and a processor (25) configured to process the captured image in order to reconstruct a depth profile of the two-dimensional area of the surface of the target object from the image captured by the image capture device.