Abstract:
A beam integrator system, which integrates multiple beams into fewer beams of increased intensity by using a combination of optical elements and lenses.

Description:
CORRESPONDING APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a utility application, which is a conversion of provisional No. 60/427,571, filed 20 Nov. 2002, the entire contents of which are incorporated in their entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a method, apparatus and system for combining and integrating the multiple laser beams of a laser diode bar into fewer beam(s). 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Since the advent of low-cost laser diodes, their inherently low power densities have limited the usefulness of these devices. Various combinations of lenses and other optical devices have been used to combine multiple laser diode beams into fewer beams (e.g., a single beam) to increase power density. More commonly, multiple laser diodes or laser diode bar arrays simply serve as optical pumps for solid state lasers, rather than using their light directly in the laser machining or other high power laser process. 
     Using the laser diode light directly in laser machining and product marking could increase the efficiency and reduce the cost for such systems, but has proven to be a challenge due to the low average brightness or radiance of diode bar arrays. The low average radiance is due to the geometry of laser diode bars. Since a single emitting junction cannot provide the required high power, a stripe or series of long narrow emitters stacked end-to-end is usually fabricated into a high power laser diode bar. Each individual emitter is approximately 500 microns or more. Thus, although the radiance within each emitter aperture is quite high, the average radiance over the entire length of the stripe is low due to the dead space between the emitters. 
     A typical laser diode bar consists of a linear array of rectangular emitters, with each emitter having a narrow width about I micron and a length of several microns up to more than one hundred microns. Typically, the long dimension of the emitter is coplanar with the long dimension of the array, effectively producing a long thin line source as illustrated in FIG.  1 . This is the easiest way to manufacture a high power laser diode bar in a single monolithic substrate. Good collimation of the light from the line source can be achieved in a narrow direction using a simple collimating lens, but not in the long direction. Due to the total length of the source in the long dimension, the collimated beam will have considerable divergence in this direction, as well as multiple dips in the intensity profile due to the non-emitting space between emitters. 
     In order to reduce this problem, some laser diode array manufacturers solder multiple emitter bars side-by-side in a stack as illustrated in FIG.  2 . The amount of dead space is reduced relative to emitted power (although not completely eliminated) and the source size is more compact. Due to the soldering process, the emitter spacing is not nearly as uniform as that of  FIG. 1 , and thus is not conductive to coupling with microlens arrays for beam integration. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An exemplary embodiment of the invention provides an optical system for combining multiple laser beams of a laser diode bar array into fewer beams (e.g. a single beam, two beams, . . . ) with greater power density. 
     A further exemplary embodiment of the invention provides an optical system that optically removes the non-emitting space between the emitters so that the intensity profile of the collimated beam is more uniform. 
     Other exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a means of optically combining the individual emitters to increase the average radiance using a multi-aperture beam integrator system. 
     Further exemplary embodiments of the invention provides a lens (e.g. anamorphic lens) or array of lenses (e.g. an array of anamorphic lenses) to reshape an incident laser beam profile(s) in the fast and slow axis directions into desired laser beam profile(s). The invention provides a multi-beam integrator system, which is used along with a means of optically rotating the emitters by an angle (e.g. 90 degrees). The angle rotation allows for better balancing of the optical invariants in the slow and fast axis directions, making it easier to “circularize” the image for coupling into fibers or to increase the irradiance for laser machining applications. Furthermore, the present invention includes a lens (e.g. anamorphic lens) to achieve a nearly circular beam along with providing a significant increase in irradiance. 
     The invention and the methods derived thereof effectively reduce the source size so that one can achieve greater collimation and energy density. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Features of the invention can be more fully appreciated through consideration of the detailed description of the invention in conjunction with the several drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a conventional diode bar consisting of multiple emitters stacked end-to-end in a linear array, with non-emitting space between each emitter. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates another conventional stacking of the emitters side-by-side in a more compact array; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the invention showing the microlens array and mirror array rotating the images of the emitters by 90 degrees, the integrator lens superimposing all eleven (11) far-field images of the emitters, and an anamorphic lens circularizing the combined emitter image on the image plane, where the source emitters are stacked end on end in the y-direction and imaged to a single bar oriented in the x-direction; 
         FIG. 4  shows the image of the superimposed emitters produced at the image plane of the embodiment in  FIG. 3 , where the length of a bar image is shorter than original laser diode bar due to the anamorphic lens, which also increases the irradiance of the image; 
         FIG. 5  shows the image plane irradiance (image of superimposed emitters) without the anamorphic lens. Emitter image is rotated 90 degrees with respect to source emitter; 
         FIG. 6  shows the image plane irradiance (image of superimposed emitters) with the dove prism array or image rotator device removed, where the image is oriented in same direction as source emitter; 
         FIG. 7  illustrates a cross-sectional view of the system of  FIG. 3 , according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIG. 8  illustrates a cross-sectional view of a system in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention wherein an optical array can be a prism array where the prism array element is non symmetric, or the optical array is a diffractive array. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 
     Exemplary embodiments of the invention can be used to increase the average source radiance and decrease the source size of a laser diode bar , comprised of an array of emitters, by optically reimaging and combining the emitters in such a way as to remove or reduce the non-emitting space between adjacent emitters and by optionally applying nonsymmetric (anamorphic) magnification to the superimposed image. 
     An exemplary embodiment of the invention, the multiple emitters of a laser diode bar configuration are reimaged and superimposed into a single emitter image with much smaller length so that the irradiance is increased and the image dimensions are more nearly equal in the orthogonal directions. If this image were reimaged to infinity, good collimation could be achieved in both the slow and fast axis directions of the emitter. A device produced in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the invention optically removes the non-emitting space between the emitters so that the intensity profile of the collimated beam is more uniform. The images of all the emitters are optically superimposed, effectively producing a single emitter. Furthermore, the long dimension of the single emitter image can be reduced with a lens (e.g., simple cylindrical lens, anamorphic lens, . . . ) so that the numerical apertures (NAs) of the emitter image are nearly identical in both orthogonal directions. 
     Although this invention applies to and illustrates focused beams (see FIG.  3 ), the same advantages also apply to collimated beams with the emitter imaged to infinity. Applications for focused beams include laser welding, marking, and materials processing. A smaller, more uniform source is more useful to these applications. Collimated beam applications include targeting and illumination of distant objects. 
     For the purposes of describing the present invention, a typical high power laser diode bar in linear configuration, comprising of an array of 11 emitters on a 708-micron pitch, with each emitter having dimensions of 1 micron by 100 microns, will be described in this disclosure. The wavelength is 980 nm and the beam divergences in the slow and fast axis directions are 10 deg and 28 deg FWHM respectively. Each emitter produces 1 W of power. However, it is clear that this invention can be used with numerous other laser diode bars with different parameters (e.g. the laser diodes can have different dimensions, pitches, and wavelengths). With the above described laser diode bar, 608 microns of space between emitters is non-radiant or non-emitting. It is desired to remove this non-radiant space and superimpose all emitters into real or virtual image of a single uniform emitter. 
     Examples according to exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in  FIGS. 3 ,  7 , and  8 . In one exemplary embodiment of the invention, due to its ease of fabrication, separates the microlens array from the image rotator array. (It is clear that these elements could be combined into a single monolithic element.) The image rotator array described here consists of an optical array ( e.g., an array of micro-dove prisms). Each optical array element (e.g. prism) consists of refractive wedges on each side of the array with a reflective mirror between the wedges. The dove prism array may be fabricated by polishing the edges of strips of glass plates to the proper wedge angle, then coating one side of each glass plate with silicon, and then anodically bonding the strips into a stack. The wedge can be non-symmetric. Alternatively, the plates can be optically cemented. In order to combine the microlens array and dove prism array into one element, the wedge or tilt would be fabricated into the microlens surface profile  FIGS. 3 and 7  show a ray trace of an embodiment of the present invention with the emitter array source  17  on the left side of the figures and the superimposed image  90  on the right. The emitters  15  are stacked end-to-end in the vertical or y-direction, with the fast axis divergence in the x-direction. A magnified image of the emitter, is formed on the image plane. All the individual images of the emitters are superimposed on the image plane forming a single magnified bar image of the emitter, as illustrated in  FIGS. 4 ,  5 , and  6 . 
       FIG. 4  shows the image with the anamorphic lens included to reduce the image size.  FIGS. 5 and 6  show the image irradiance without the anamorphic lens. The image is proportional in shape to source emitter.  FIG. 5  includes the dove prism array showing rotation of the image by 90 degrees;  FIG. 6  results when the dove prism array is removed. Light emitted from the laser diode bar is first collimated by the microlens array into eleven collimated beamlets. Each beamlet is directed onto the angled face of a micro-dove prism. The tilted face refracts the beamlet toward the reflective face of the dove prism, which then reflects the beamlet toward the second face of the dove prism. The second angled face bends the collimated beam back into the original direction of travel from the microlens. The mirror face is parallel to the optical axis (z-axis) but angled by 45 degrees in the x-y plane. The integrator lens  60  combines all eleven beamlets (e.g. a beam combining lens) to a single image of the emitter at image plane  80 . 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a beam integrator system  10  according to an exemplary embodiment according to the invention. The laser diode bar  17  includes a plurality of emitters  15  which are located in an end-to-end position with respect to the neighboring emitter. In the exemplary embodiment each individual emitter  15  aperture can be of variable size (e.g. 1 micron wide by 100 microns). The spacing between emitters  15  can vary (e.g 400 microns). 
     Each of the emitters  15  can have a corresponding micro-lens  20  so as to collimate the light being emitted from the emitters  15 . Alternative embodiments do not have a corresponding micro-lens  20 , instead the optical array  30  can be designed to collimate the laser diode light. Each micro-lens  20  has a first side  25  and a second side  27 , wherein the first side  25  and second side  27  generally opposite to one another. The emitters  15  are located on the first side  25  of the micro-lens  20  and a corresponding dove micro-prism  30  is located on the second side  27  of each micro-lens  20 . As shown in  FIG. 7 , the optical elements  30  (e.g. dove micro-prisms) are stacked top to bottom upon one another. In alternative embodiments the micro-prisms can be staggered (not shown). 
     In an exemplary embodiment the optical element is a dove micro-prism  30  have a general three dimensional trapezoidal shape having a top side  32  and bottom side  34  and two sloped sides  36 ,  38 . The top side  32  of each dove micro-prism  30  can be connected to the bottom side  34  of the neighboring dove micro-prism  30  to form the stacked array as shown in FIG.  7 . Alternatively there can be a spacing between optical elements  30 . Furthermore, each of the corresponding emitters  15 , micro-lens  20  and dove micro-prisms  30  all share an axis. The array of dove micro-prisms  30  can optically rotate the individual emitter images by a chosen angle (e.g. 90 degrees). Such rotation can be used in conjunction with a lens to reduce the long dimension of the long dimension of the emitter image (e.g. a rotation of 90 degrees allows an anamorphic lens (discussed later) to easily reduce the long dimension of the emitter image). 
     The beam integrator system  10  also includes an integrator lens  60 . In the exemplary embodiment, the diameter of the integrator lens  60  can be greater than or equal to the height of the stacked dove micro-prisms  30 . In the exemplary embodiment the integrator lens is comprised of a normal plano-convex lens. However, this could be a bi-convex lens, a meniscus lens, or combination of elements to minimize aberrations. The specific shape or number of elements is not germane to the invention, only that it has positive optical power and combines the beams in an aberration-free manner. The integrator lens  60  combines the light beams exiting emitters and overlap the real images of the emitters at the focal point of the integrator lens. 
       FIG. 8  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the invention having an anamorphic lens  70  and a asymmetric optical array  30 . 
     Once the beams of light exit the integrator lens  60 , the beams of light can be passed through an anamorphic lens—to reduce the long dimension of the emitter image. In exemplary embodiments of the present invention spots or linear images formed in the image plane  80  can have sizes between 1-1000 microns, with peek power densities from 10-1000 kW/cm2. Other exemplary embodiments have various peek powers and sizes and the discussion herein should not be interpreted to limit the image formed on the image plane, for example the image can be a few microns in width and millimeters in length having a peek power of hundreds of kW/cm2. 
     Variations in the shape and type of optical arrays are intended to fall within the scope of the invention. For example the optical array can be a diffractive array as opposed to the refractive array.