Abstract: Optionally expandable passenger seating is provided in a second compartment of a vehicle body including a first compartment and a second compartment rearwardly adjacent the first compartment, through use of a passenger seating cushion attached to an interior surface of a rear wallgate, of the first compartment, optionally separating the first and second compartments from one another. The rear wallgate is attached at a lower edge thereof for pivoting movement from a vertical position, whereat the rear wallgate at least partially separates the first compartment from the second compartment with the interior surface of the wallgate facing into the first compartment, to a horizontal position, whereat the rear wall gate extends into the second compartment with the interior surface of the rear wallgate facing generally upward, thereby allowing a passenger to sit on the cushion when the rear wall gate is in the horizontal position.

Abstract: A multiple-pass laser amplifier that uses optical focusing between subsequent passes through a single gain medium so that a reproducibly stable beam size is achieved within the gain region. A resonator or a White Cell cavity is provided, including two or more mirrors (planar or curvilinearly shaped) facing each other along a resonator axis and an optical gain medium positioned on a resonator axis between the mirrors or adjacent to one of the mirrors. In a first embodiment, two curvilinear mirrors, which may include adjacent lenses, are configured so that a light beam passing through the gain medium and incident on the first mirror is reflected by that mirror toward the second mirror in a direction approximately parallel to the resonator axis. A light beam translator, such as an optical flat of transparent material, is positioned to translate this light beam by a controllable amount toward or away from the resonator axis for each pass of the light beam through the translator.

Abstract: Compact solid state laser apparatus that includes a laser diode pump, beam forming optics, a laser gain medium and optical resonator, a photodetector to vary the power supplied to the laser diode pump to suppress relaxation oscillations that might otherwise appear in the laser gain medium output light beam, an optical isolator and laser output optics. Each of the optical components has an independently activatable heater to allow optical alignment of that component. Each of the laser diode pump and laser gain medium has an independently activatable thermoelectric cooler to allow optical alignment (laser gain medium only) and to provide thermal tuning of the output wavelength of that device. An optical platform, which is thermally conductive, electrically non-conductive and has low thermal expansion, supports the other components, provides a substrate for electrical traces that provide power for operation of the apparatus and contains the heaters for the optical components.