Patent ID: 11886053
Assignee: NLIGHT, INC.
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B  H  Y | IPC B  G  H

Claim 10:
11. An apparatus, comprising:
an optical fiber device usable in an optical beam delivery system, the optical fiber device including:
a perturbation region situated to receive an input optical beam, the perturbation region having a first refractive index profile;
a perturbation assembly coupled to the perturbation region or integral with the perturbation region;
a confinement region having a second refractive index profile arranged to maintain any selected beam characteristic from a set of two or more different beam characteristics; and
means for variably controlling delivery of a laser to a workpiece, the variable controlling means arranged to generate, in accordance with the selected beam characteristic of the set of two or more different beam characteristics, a control signal to send to the perturbation assembly, wherein the control signal is based on information about a demanded laser attribute for the delivery of the laser to the workpiece;
wherein the confinement region is situated to receive a modified optical beam generated by operation of the perturbation assembly based on the generated control signal, and the second refractive index profile preserves at least one beam characteristic of the modified optical beam.