Patent ID: 11858842
Assignee: NLIGHT, INC.
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC C  G | IPC C  G

Claim 0:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a first length of fiber situated to receive an input optical beam, the first length of fiber having a first refractive index profile; a perturbation assembly coupled to the first length of fiber or integral with the first length of fiber; a bend controller to tune delivery of a laser to a workpiece, the bend controller coupled to the perturbation assembly, the bend controller powered by, or comprising, a power source and arranged to identify, in real time, a beam perturbation device drive level corresponding to a bend amount from a set of two or more predefined bend amounts; a memory storing a calibration table in which two or more different beam characteristics are correlated with the two or more predefined bend amounts, respectively, wherein the apparatus further comprises a second length of fiber having a second refractive index selected to maintain any selected beam characteristic from the two or more different beam characteristics; the bend controller situated to apply a bend to at least a section of the first length of fiber to perturb the input optical beam and produce a modified optical beam in real-time, by operating the perturbation assembly based on the identified beam perturbation device drive level, wherein the bend controller is further configured to: receive information about a demanded laser attribute for the tuning the delivery of the laser to the workpiece; and perform a look-up from the calibration table based on the information about the demanded laser attribute, wherein the beam perturbation device drive level is identified based on the look-up from the calibration table; and the second length of fiber situated to receive the modified optical beam and maintain at least one beam characteristic of the modified optical beam.