Patent ID: 7502176

Claim:
A combined laser source comprising: a plurality of semiconductor lasers which contain emission elements emitting a plurality of laser beams and being separately and hermetically sealed; a plurality of collimator lenses which collimate said plurality of laser beams emitted from said emission elements of the plurality of semiconductor lasers; an optical condensing system which receives, condenses, and optically combines the plurality of laser beams collimated by said plurality of collimator lenses; and one or more deflection members which are arranged between said optical condensing system and one or more of said plurality of collimator lenses, and deflect one or more of the plurality of laser beams collimated by the one or more of the plurality of collimator lenses in directions different from an optical axis of the condensing system so that the one or more of the plurality of laser beams propagate parallel to the optical axis of the optical condensing system; wherein said plurality of semiconductor lasers are arranged so that a major axis of a cross section of one of said plurality of laser beams is different from a major axis of a cross section of another of the plurality of laser beams, each of said one or more deflection members is so positioned and has such a shape that the one or more deflection members do not block the plurality of laser beams, and the plurality of laser beams are arrayed in an approximately radial arrangement in a plane contained in the optical condensing system and perpendicular to said optical axis of the optical condensing system.