Confocal optical scanning system employing a fiber laser
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United States of America Patent
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Mar 23, 1999
Grant Date -
N/A
app pub date -
May 22, 1997
filing date -
May 22, 1997
priority date (Note) -
Expired
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Abstract
A confocal optical scanning system using a flexible optical emissive fiber or fiber laser and having a lasing cavity defined within the fiber. The system in-couples a signal beam produced when a probe beam generated by the fiber laser is reflected from a scanned object back into the lasing cavity. The perturbation created in the cavity by the in-coupling of the signal beam is detected by a transducer. Specifically, the perturbation may be the signal beam itself, an oscillation mode of the cavity induced by the in-coupled signal beam or a combination of the signal beam and the probe beam. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the system also has a polarizing assembly for altering a signal polarization of the signal beam and rotate it to either a resonant polarization supported by the cavity or a non-resonant polarization not supported by the cavity.
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