Patent ID: 7869471

Claim:
A tunable OPO laser comprising: a) an OPO cavity containing an OPO nonlinear crystal for generating a plurality of OPO beams of preselected wavelengths; b) said OPO cavity formed between a first OPO reflective surface and a second movable OPO reflective surface; c) a laser cavity containing a lasing medium for generating a preselected wavelength fundamental beam; d) said laser cavity partially separate and partially overlapping said OPO cavity; e) a first beam separating prism located in said OPO cavity, said prism in optical communication with said first and second OPO reflective surfaces; f) said first beam separating prism separating electromagnetic radiation propagating through the first beam separating prism into spatially separate paths of different wavelength prior to said radiation incidenting on said second movable OPO reflective surface; g) said second movable OPO reflective surface moveable over a preselected range to selectively reflect electromagnetic radiation propagating on one of said spatially separated paths at a preselected wavelength back through said OPO nonlinear crystal for amplification; h) said first beam separatism separating fundamental beam from said OPO beams on a spatially separate fundamental beam path; i) a second beam separating prism located on said fundamental beam path to further spatially separate fundamental beam from other wavelength beams generated in said OPO cavity and direct said separated fundamental beam through said lasing medium for amplification; j) said first beam separating prism located in said overlapping portion of said laser cavity and said OPO cavity.