LCWG steered laser transmitter and situational awareness sensor with wavelength conversion
First Claim
1. A laser device, comprising:
- a laser configured to generate a collimated spot-beam at an input wavelength along an optical axis;
a liquid crystal waveguide (LCWG) along the optical axis responsive to command signals to steer the collimated spot-beam at the input wavelength in two-dimensions about the optical axis;
a controller configured to issue command signals to the LCWG to steer the collimated spot-beam;
a fixed mirror including a first conic section oriented along the optical axis that redirects the collimated spot-beam to scan a two-dimensional field-of-view (FOV); and
a first annular cylindrical shaped optical element with a first optical non-linear material oriented along an axis coincident with the optical axis, said redirected collimated spot-beam passing through the first optical non-linear material to convert the input wavelength to a different first output wavelength while preserving the steering of the collimated spot-beam over the FOV.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A steerable laser transmitter and situational awareness sensor uses a liquid crystal waveguide (LCWG) to steer a spot-beam onto a conical mirror, which in turn redirects the spot-beam to scan a FOV. The spot-beam passes through one or more annular sections of non-linearly material (NLM) formed along the axis and around the conical mirror. Each NLM section converts the wavelength of the spot-beam to a different wavelength while preserving the steering of the spot-beam. The LCWG may shape or move the spot-beam along the axis of the conic mirror to sequentially, time or time and spatially multiplex the spot-beam between the original and different wavelengths. This provides multispectral capability from a single laser source. The transmitter also supports steering the spot-beam at a wavelength at which the LCWG cannot steer directly.
-
Citations
21 Claims
-
1. A laser device, comprising:
-
a laser configured to generate a collimated spot-beam at an input wavelength along an optical axis; a liquid crystal waveguide (LCWG) along the optical axis responsive to command signals to steer the collimated spot-beam at the input wavelength in two-dimensions about the optical axis; a controller configured to issue command signals to the LCWG to steer the collimated spot-beam; a fixed mirror including a first conic section oriented along the optical axis that redirects the collimated spot-beam to scan a two-dimensional field-of-view (FOV); and a first annular cylindrical shaped optical element with a first optical non-linear material oriented along an axis coincident with the optical axis, said redirected collimated spot-beam passing through the first optical non-linear material to convert the input wavelength to a different first output wavelength while preserving the steering of the collimated spot-beam over the FOV. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A laser device, comprising:
-
a laser configured to generate a collimated spot-beam at an input wavelength along an optical axis; a liquid crystal waveguide (LCWG) along the optical axis responsive to command signals to steer the collimated spot-beam at the input wavelength in two-dimensions about the optical axis; a fixed mirror including first and second different conic section oriented along the optical axis that redirect the collimated spot-beam to scan a two-dimensional field-of-view (FOV); a first annular cylindrical shaped optical element with a first optical non-linear material oriented along an axis coincident with the optical axis, said optical element configured such that the collimated spot-beam redirected from said first conic section passes through the first optical non-linear material to convert the input wavelength to a different first output wavelength while preserving the steering of the collimated spot-beam over the FOV; and a controller configured to issue command signals to the LCWG to steer the collimated spot-beam to said first and second different conic sections to scan a multispectral spot-beam at the first output wavelength and a second output wavelength over the two-dimensional FOV. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
Specification