Patent ID: 11911101
Assignee: CYCLONE BIOSCIENCES, LLC
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A process for preventing a damage of a bent optical fiber configured for transmission of light generated by a laser source therethrough, the process comprising:
(i) switching on a laser source to generate a laser output of a chosen duration directed towards and aligned with said optical fiber while keeping a portion of said laser output that is coupled into said optical fiber below an operational level, to prevent an errant portion of the laser output from being coupled into said optical fiber,
wherein said keeping is maintained for a period of time starting at a moment of the switching, and
wherein said keeping the useful amount of light below the operational level is carried out by at least one of:
(1a) keeping an amount of seed energy transferred to a gain medium of the laser source from a pump system below a pump level required for the laser source to generate the laser output at the operational level, and
(1b) attenuating said useful amount of light with the use of a beam attenuator positioned in an optical path of said laser output between the laser source and said optical fiber, the beam attenuator including at least one of a beam absorber, a beam splitter, and a beam shutter;

and
(ii) after said period of time, increasing the useful amount of light substantially to the operational level by, respectively, transferring the amount of seed energy from the pump system to the gain medium substantially at the pump level and/or reducing a degree of said attenuating.