Frequency-converted optical beams having adjustable beam characteristics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10684487-B2
Application number	US-201815939223-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2018
Priority date	Sep 29, 2016
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

An optical beam delivery system, includes: an optical beam source; a fiber assembly situated to receive and modify one or more beam characteristics of an optical beam; and a nonlinear frequency-conversion stage in optical communication with the fiber assembly and situated to receive and frequency-convert an optical beam from a first wavelength to one or more second wavelengths. The fiber assembly includes: a first length of fiber comprising a first RIP formed to enable modification of the one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam by a perturbation device, and a second length of fiber having a second RIP coupled to the first length of fiber, the second RIP formed to confine at least a portion of modified beam characteristics of the optical beam within one or more confinement regions. The first RIP and the second RIP are different.

First claim

We claim:

1. An optical beam delivery system, comprising:
an optical beam source;
a fiber assembly situated to receive and modify one or more beam characteristics of an optical beam, wherein the fiber assembly comprises:
a first length of fiber comprising a first RIP formed to enable modification of the one or more beam characteristics of the optical beam by a perturbation device, and
a second length of fiber functionally directly coupled through a fiber-coupling interface with the first length of fiber, the second length of fiber having a second RIP defined by multiple confinement regions and formed to confine at least a portion of modified beam characteristics of the optical beam within at least one of the multiple confinement regions,
wherein the first RIP and the second RIP are different; and

a nonlinear frequency-conversion stage in optical communication with the fiber assembly and situated to receive and frequency-convert an optical beam from a first wavelength to one or more second wavelengths.

2. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the fiber assembly is in optical communication with the optical beam source and configured to modify one or more beam characteristics of an optical beam generated by the optical beam source.

3. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the nonlinear frequency-conversion stage is further in optical communication with the optical beam source and configured to frequency-convert an optical beam generated by the optical beam source.

4. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the nonlinear frequency-conversion stage comprises at least one nonlinear crystal.

5. The optical beam delivery system of claim 4 , wherein the at least one nonlinear crystal generates a beam having second harmonic from an input beam.

6. The optical beam delivery system of claim 4 , wherein the at least one nonlinear crystal comprises one or more of KTP, KDP, KD*P, LBO, CLBO, BBO, BiBO, PPLN, LiNbO3, LiTaO3, PPLT, PPSLT, ZDP, barium nitrate, CdS, CdSe or combinations thereof.

7. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the nonlinear frequency-conversion stage comprises an optical parametric oscillator.

8. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , further comprising a source fiber situated to couple a source beam, generated by the optical beam source, to the fiber assembly.

9. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , further comprising a source fiber situated to couple a source beam, generated by the optical beam source, to the nonlinear frequency-conversion stage.

10. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , further comprising a feeding fiber disposed between the fiber assembly and the nonlinear frequency-conversion stage.

11. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the second wavelength is longer than the first wavelength.

12. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the second wavelength is shorter than the first wavelength.

13. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the nonlinear frequency-conversion stage comprises a Raman shifter.

14. The optical beam delivery system of claim 1 , wherein the nonlinear frequency conversion stage is contained within an optical cavity.

15. The optical beam delivery device of claim 1 , in which the first length of fiber includes an input for receiving the optical beam from an input fiber.

16. The optical beam delivery device of claim 15 , in which the first length of fiber includes an output fused to an input of the second length of fiber.

17. The optical beam delivery device of claim 1 , in which the fiber-coupling interface includes an index-matching material.

18. The optical beam delivery device of claim 1 , in which the fiber-coupling interface includes a splice.

19. The optical beam delivery device of claim 1 , in which the fiber-coupling interface includes a fiber joint.

20. The optical beam delivery device of claim 1 , in which the fiber-coupling interface includes a connector.

21. The optical beam delivery device of claim 1 , in which the fiber-coupling interface maintains a substantially unaltered operative relationship between the first and second RIPs.

Assignees

• Nlight Inc

Inventors

• Victor Brian
• Bell Jacob L
• Kliner Dahv A V
• Farrow Roger

Classifications

• B23K26/064 Primary

  by means of optical elements, e.g. lenses, mirrors or prisms · CPC title

• G02B6/14

  Mode converters · CPC title

• G02B6/4296

  coupling with sources of high radiant energy, e.g. high power lasers, high temperature light sources · CPC title

• G02B6/02042

  Multicore optical fibres · CPC title

• G02B6/0288

  Multimode fibre, e.g. graded index core for compensating modal dispersion · CPC title