Patent ID: 7075724

Claim:
A compensator/remapper for control and correction of laser pointing and thermal drift instability in a laser beam delivery system including a laser generating a laser beam and a plurality of optical elements for directing, shaping and focusing the laser beam along a beam path to a target, the compensator/remapper comprising: a non-symmetric compensator element for receiving an input laser beam having at least one of an angular deviation between an axis of the laser beam and an axis of the compensator element and a radial deviation between the axis of the laser beam and the axis of the compensator element and having beam redirection characteristics for redirecting the input laser beam into a remapper element, the beam redirection characteristics of the non-symmetric compensator element including at least one of an angular redirection of the input laser beam by an angle directly proportional to a radial offset between a point of incidence of the laser beam on an input side of the compensator element and the axis of the compensator element, and an angular redirection of the input laser beam by an angle inversely proportional to an angle of incidence of the input beam with respect to the input side of the non-symmetric compensator element, and a remapper element illuminated by the laser beam from the compensator element and remapping the components of the aligned laser beam into a shaped laser beam having a profile that is optimum for remapping into a flat top laser beam.