In an optical module that irradiates an object with a light beam and detects reflected light thereof, a linear light beam without distortion is emitted regardless of an incident angle of a scanned light beam.

The light emitting unit includes a plurality of light emitting elements arranged in a predetermined direction. The converging unit converges the light beam emitted from each of the plurality of light emitting elements into a substantially parallel light beam or a light beam having a predetermined angular width at a predetermined diaphragm center point. The light conversion unit converts the light beam through the converging unit into a linear light beam in a line direction substantially orthogonal to the arrangement direction of the light emitting unit by the optical surface. The light detection unit detects reflected light from the object with respect to the linear light beam. In the optical surface of the light conversion unit, the curvature radius in the arrangement direction of the light emitting unit is substantially equal to the distance from the virtual diaphragm center point in the arrangement direction of the light emitting unit to the center point of the optical surface of the light conversion unit regardless of the position in the line direction.

A laser module includes a laser submodule, a polarization beam combiner (PBC), a beam rotator, a grating, and an output fiber (e.g., each disposed on an internal surface of a floor of the laser module). The laser submodule is configured to emit an array pattern of beams, which the PBC is configured to combine into a vertical stack pattern of beams, which the beam rotator is configured to rotate into a horizontal stack pattern of beams, which the grating is configured to combine into an overlapped pattern of beams, which the output fiber is configured to emit. The vertical stack pattern of beams, the horizontal stack pattern of beams, and the overlapped pattern of beams are to transmit through the laser module parallel to a single common plane (e.g., that is parallel to the internal surface of the floor of the laser module).

An illumination apparatus includes a plurality of LED chips arranged to form an LED array, light from the plurality of LED chips superimpose to project a light intensity distribution projected on the predetermined plane; a pair of lens arrays each including a plurality of lenses and configured to collect light from the LED arrays; a driving unit configured to adjust a distance between the pair of lens arrays and change the light intensity distribution projected on the predetermined plane; and a control unit for individually controlling the output of the first and second LED arrays.

A laser module according to the present disclosure includes a laser diode, a first collimating lens, and a beam twister. The laser diode includes a plurality of emitters and emits laser light from each of the plurality of emitters through a light emission surface. The first collimating lens is provided at a first distance from the light emission surface of the laser diode and parallelizes a fast-axis-wise divergence of the laser light. The beam twister is provided at a second distance away from the first collimating lens and turns the laser light approximately 90 degrees. Each of the plurality of emitters has a width of 5 μm to 120 μm on the light emission surface. The plurality of emitters have a pitch of 295 μm to 305 μm on the light emission surface.

The present invention is directed to an ultra-compact dual quantum cascade laser assembly that nearly doubles the strength of a traditional laser in a in a single hermetically sealed micropackage. The device may comprise two quantum cascade lasers that meet at a combiner to create a single laser with a higher strength than traditional lasers. The current invention provides a path to an ultra-compact coherent beam combing arrangement that uses both dichroic beam combining and polarization beam combining techniques.

A projector includes an illumination waveguide layer, a collimation waveguide layer, and a spatial modulator. The illumination waveguide layer expands a light beam which is coupled to the spatial modulator. The spatial modulator modulates the expanded light beam to provide a line of light points of controllable brightness. The collimation waveguide collimates light of the light points to obtain a fan of collimated light beams. Each collimated light beam of the fan has an angle corresponding to a coordinate of the corresponding light point of the line. A tiltable reflector may be placed at the exit pupil to scan the fan of light beams in a plane non-parallel to the plane of the fan, thus providing a 2D image in angular domain. An array of Mach-Zehnder interferometers may be used in place of the illumination waveguide layer and the spatial modulator to provide the line of light points.

A beam coupling device includes a light source, optical units, and a coupling optical system. The light source includes light emitters arranged in a first direction and a second direction, to emit light beams having a light ray direction intersecting the first and second directions from each of the light emitters. The optical units are arranged to guide each light beam for each set of light emitters arranged in the first direction in the light source. The coupling optical system is arranged to couple the light beams guided by each optical unit. Each of the optical units is arranged to direct outward the light ray direction of the light beam emitted by a light emitter that is located outside in the first direction for the set of light emitters, to guide the light beam from the light emitter into the coupling optical system.

A device for collimating a light radiation field of a light source (L) having a beam characteristic which is different in a first plane (FAC) from that of a second plane (SAC). The device comprises at least one first collimating lens (10) and a second collimating lens (20). The device has an additional optical element (30) in order to collimate the light radiation field in different planes to the first and to the second plane.

In various embodiments, pointing errors in a non-wavelength-beam-combining dimension of a laser system are at least partially alleviated via staircased collimation lenses.

Provided include a beam modulation apparatus for modulating an input light field and a projection system containing the apparatus. The input light field has a first light field and a second light field, having a difference of 90° in their polarization states. The apparatus includes a PBS prism, a first LCOS panel and a second LCOS panel. The first and the second LCOS panel are respectively over a side surface of the PBS prism opposing to an optical incident surface and an optical exit surface. Each LCOS panel comprises a plurality of pixels over a reflective surface thereof, with each pixel controllably switched on or off such that a polarity state of a light beam reflected by a portion of the reflective surface corresponding thereto is changed or remains unchanged. This beam modulation apparatus can be applied in a projection system, such as a laser TV projection system.