Patent ID: 7796260

Claim:
A method of adjusting the intensity of a beam of electromagnetic radiation comprising the steps of: a) providing: a beam of electromagnetic radiation which has been collimated; and a combination of: a reflecting means, which demonstrates non-achromatic reflection characteristics in that different wavelengths are reflected with different intensity efficiencies therefrom, and an attenuation system which demonstrates substantially achromatic attenuation characteristics in that all wavelengths caused to pass therethrough are subjected to substantially equal relative intensity attenuations, said attenuation system comprising a circular wheel with regions thereof sequentially positioned circumferentially such that they can be variously placed in the beam by a rotation motion about the center of said wheel, said regions having different densities of quasi-uniformly distributed small holes or densities of electromagnetic radiation absorbing material and being characterized by selections from the group consisting of: R 1 being 100% open; R 2 being 1.56% open; R 3 being 3.13% open; R 4 being 6.25% open; R 5 being 12.5% open; R 6 being 25% open; and R 7 being 50% open; b) causing said beam to reflect from said reflecting means and monitoring the resulting effect on intensity while applying a means for sequentially placing different regions of said attenuation system in the path of said beam of electromagnetic radiation to position a desired region thereof in the path of said beam, said beam being directed to enter a detector after passing through said means for sequentially placing different regions of an attenuation system in the path of said beam of electromagnetic radiation; said method further comprising at least one selection from the group consisting of: storing at least some data provided by said detector in machine readable media; analyzing at least some of the data provided by said detector and storing at least some of the results of said analysis in machine readable media; displaying at least some data provided by said detector by electronic and/or non-electronic means; analyzing at least some of the data provided by said detector and displaying at least some of the results of said analysis by electronic and/or non-electronic means; causing at least some data provided by said detector to produce a signal which is applied to provide a concrete and tangible result; analyzing at least some of the data provided by said detector and causing at least some thereof to produce a signal which is applied to provide a concrete and tangible result.