Patent ID: 9651426
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: G01J,G01N,G02B,G02F,H01S

Claim:
1. A light source comprising: a first laser that emits a beam of linearly polarized light that is characterized by a propagation direction; a first wire-grid polarization filter characterized by a first linear polarization pass direction and a first actuator for causing said first linear polarization pass direction to rotate relative to said beam of linearly polarized light, said first wire-grid polarization filter being positioned such that said beam of linearly polarized light passes through said first wire-grid polarization filter; a second wire-grid polarization filter characterized by a second linear polarization pass direction and a second actuator for causing said second linear polarization pass direction to rotate relative to said beam of linearly polarized light, said second wire-grid polarization filter being positioned such that said beam of linearly polarized light passes through said second wire-grid polarization filter after passing through said first wire-grid polarization filter; and a controller for setting said first and second linear polarization pass directions to provide linearly polarized light having a specified polarization direction, said first linear polarization pass direction being different from said second linear polarization pass direction for at least one value of said specified polarization value.