Patent ID: 8630322

Claim:
A laser system comprising: a laser source operably emitting laser pulses; a pulse shaper operably shaping the pulses; a detector operably receiving the shaped pulses, the pulses following a single path between the source and the detector; and a controller operably causing the shaper to transmit a reference spectral portion of at least one of the pulses through the shaper; the controller operably causing the shaper to transmit different scanned spectral portions of at least one of the same pulses through a different spectral location in the shaper; the controller, detector and shaper operably measuring and correcting an undesired distortion in at least some of the pulses by comparing detected values associated with the reference and scanned spectral portion transmissions; and the reference spectral portion of the laser pulses transmitted through a fixed opening in the pulse shaper, acting as a reference against which scanned spectral portions of the laser pulses, transmitted through at least one moving opening in the pulse shaper, being compared by the controller.