Patent ID: 6407870
Filing Date: 2002-06-18
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
An optical beam shaper for spatial redistribution of inhomogeneous beams emitted from a plurality of individual coherent light sources and a reshaped beam receiver for receiving reshaped beams from said individual coherent light sources, said inhomogeneous beams having in its cross section a first direction and a second direction which is perpendicular to said first direction, beam divergences in said first direction and said second direction being different, said optical beam shaper comprising, at least:a first beam reshaping stage having an input side and an output side, said input side of said first beam reshaping stage facing said plurality of individual coherent light sources; a second beam reshaping stage having an input side facing said output side of said first beam reshaping stage and an output side facing said reshaped beam receiver; said first beam reshaping stage reshaping said inhomogeneous beams in said first direction, and said second beam reshaping stage reshaping said inhomogeneous beams in said second direction; at least one of said stages having a plurality of beam shaping elements with refractive surfaces, at least part of said inhomogeneous beams passing through at least part of said refractive surfaces, said beam shaping elements being placed in positions that prevent intersection of said inhomogeneous beams on said input side of said second stage.