Method and apparatus to correct for thermally-induced wavefront distortion in crystal rods
First Claim
1. An optical correction system for compensating for optical distortion in an optical signal output from an optical signal generating device, the system comprising:
- a beamsplitter for receiving said output signal, said beamsplitter generating a refracted beam and a reflected beam;
a sensor for receiving said refracted beam, said sensor providing a measured signal of said refracted beam;
a computational device responsive to said measured signal, said computational device receiving said measured signal and generating an actuation signal for minimizing said optical distortion, said actuation signal being representative of an error correction signal for reducing or eliminating said optical distortion;
a stress application device responsive to said actuation signal for generating a stress signal to be applied to a crystal so as to minimize said optical distortion in said reflected beam; and
a force applicator in contact with at least two generally opposed faces of said crystal and responsive to said stress signal from said stress application device, said force applicator applying a force to said crystal sufficient to thus remove or eliminate said distortion from said output signal of said crystal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An optical correction system for correcting thermally-induced wavefront distortions in an optical signal emanating from a crystal or other form of optical device/system. An optical output signal from the thermally sensitive optical device/system is fed to a beamsplitter, which produces a reflected optical signal and a refracted optical signal containing thermally-induced distortion. The refracted signal is fed to a wavefront distortion sensor which produces an output signal representative of the thermally-induced distortion. The output of the wavefront distortion sensor is fed to a computational device which determines the necessary degree of error correction to compensate for the thermally-induced optical distortion. A stress application device receives the output of the computational device and generates an electrical signal in accordance therewith which is then used to control a force applicator in physical contact with the crystal. The force applicator applies a precise degree of stress (either tensile or compressive) to the crystal to remove or substantially reduce the thermally-induced optical distortion.
10 Citations
14 Claims
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1. An optical correction system for compensating for optical distortion in an optical signal output from an optical signal generating device, the system comprising:
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a beamsplitter for receiving said output signal, said beamsplitter generating a refracted beam and a reflected beam;
a sensor for receiving said refracted beam, said sensor providing a measured signal of said refracted beam;
a computational device responsive to said measured signal, said computational device receiving said measured signal and generating an actuation signal for minimizing said optical distortion, said actuation signal being representative of an error correction signal for reducing or eliminating said optical distortion;
a stress application device responsive to said actuation signal for generating a stress signal to be applied to a crystal so as to minimize said optical distortion in said reflected beam; and
a force applicator in contact with at least two generally opposed faces of said crystal and responsive to said stress signal from said stress application device, said force applicator applying a force to said crystal sufficient to thus remove or eliminate said distortion from said output signal of said crystal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An optical correction system for use with an optical element, comprising:
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a beamsplitter for receiving an output beam from said optical element, said beamsplitter generating a refracted beam and a reflected beam;
a computation device responsive to a measured optical distortion of said output beam for calculating an appropriate error correction signal to minimize or eliminate said measured optical distortion;
a stress application device responsive to said error correction signal for generating an electrical stress signal representative of the stress needed to be applied to an optical element in a manner to reduce or eliminate said measured optical distortion; and
a force applicator responsive to said electrical stress signal for applying a stress to at least two faces of an optical element to correct for said measured optical distortion in said reflected beam, said force applicator being disposed in contact with said optical element. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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Specification