Abstract: Example embodiments include an optical assembly for an optical interrogation system having a single core or a multicore sensing fiber, a measurement fiber to couple light into the sensing fiber, and a reference fiber arranged with the measurement fiber as part of an optical interferometer. A beam splitter combines light from the sensing fiber and with light from the reference fiber. A polarization beam splitting prism separates the combined light into first polarized light and second polarized light that is orthogonal to the first polarized light. The optical assembly can substantially reduce the size, complexity, or cost associated with the traditional optical components in an optical interrogation system that it replaces. Other example optical assemblies are described. Embodiments describe optical interrogation systems using the example optical assemblies.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
August 16, 2017
Date of Patent:
April 13, 2021
Assignee:
Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc.
Inventors:
Mark Froggatt, Eric Sanborn, Alexander K. Sang
Abstract: A line beam system includes a single-emitter light engine including a plurality of separately spaced single-emitter diode lasers, each emitter configured to emit a diode laser beam. Beam spacing optics are optically coupled to the single-emitter light engine and situated to provide propagation axes of the diode laser beams in a close-packed parallel configuration. A light pipe having a longitudinal axis is situated to provide an output beam with a homogenized intensity profile across one or more axes by receiving a close-packed, combined beam and reflecting the beam within the light pipe. Coherence reduction is produced by diffraction of a close-packed combined beam or by propagation in the light pipe.