Laser resonators employing diffractive optical elements
First Claim
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1. A laser comprising:
- a resonant cavity;
a gain medium located within the resonant cavity;
means for exciting the gain medium to generate a laser beam; and
a diffractive optical element (DOE) for focusing the beam, said DOE being defined by an optical microstructure formed on a substrate, said optical microstructure for diffracting the laser beam, said DOE being located either within the resonant cavity or formed integrally with said resonant cavity such that the beam must be diffracted by the DOE before it exits the resonant cavity.
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Abstract
A laser 10 is disclosed in which there are incorporated one or more diffractive optical elements (DOE'"'"'s) 20. The DOE'"'"'s can be used in place of conventional optics to save costs and allow design of resonators not heretofore possible. The ability to vary the reflectivity of the surface of a DOE in any desired pattern allows unprecedented control of both the intracavity mode as well as the mode of the output beam.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A laser comprising:
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a resonant cavity; a gain medium located within the resonant cavity; means for exciting the gain medium to generate a laser beam; and a diffractive optical element (DOE) for focusing the beam, said DOE being defined by an optical microstructure formed on a substrate, said optical microstructure for diffracting the laser beam, said DOE being located either within the resonant cavity or formed integrally with said resonant cavity such that the beam must be diffracted by the DOE before it exits the resonant cavity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification