SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MANAGING INCOHERENT LASER BEAMS

Abstract

A laser light source for producing incoherent laser beams, in particular for speckle-free imaging and/or projection, with at least two different wavelengths, preferably with three different wavelengths, includes: at least two optical devices, in particular at least two optical parametric oscillators, which each have a nonlinear optical medium for respectively producing a signal beam and an idler beam, and a superposition device configured to respectively superpose either the signal beam or the idler beam of each of the at least two optical devices for producing an incoherent laser beam with the at least two different wavelengths. A laser projector for producing an image, in particular a speckle-free image, on a projection surface, can include such a laser light source.

Claims

1. A laser light source for producing incoherent laser beams having at least two different wavelengths, the laser light source comprising: at least two optical devices, each comprising a respective nonlinear optical medium for producing a respective signal beam and a respective idler beam; and a superposition device configured to superpose one of the respective signal beam and the respective idler beam produced by each of the at least two optical devices to produce an incoherent laser beam having the at least two different wavelengths.

2. The laser light source of claim 1, wherein the at least two optical devices comprise at least two optical parametric oscillators.

3. The laser light source of claim 1, further comprising at least one pump source configured to produce at least one pump beam for exciting the respective nonlinear optical media of the at least two optical devices.

4. The laser light source of claim 1, further comprising in a beam path downstream of each of the at least two optical devices, at least one optical filter configured to filter the other one of the respective signal beam and the respective idler beam that is not used for the superposition.

5. The laser light source of claim 4, wherein the at least one optical filter is configured to filter a pump beam of a corresponding pump source for exciting the respective nonlinear optical medium of the optical device.

6. The laser light source of claim 4, wherein the at least one optical filter is part of the superposition device.

7. The laser light source of claim 1, comprising at least three optical devices, each of the at least three optical devices being configured to produce a respective signal beam and respective idler beam, wherein the superposition device is configured to superpose one of the respective signal beam and the respective idler beam of each of the at least three optical devices to produce an incoherent laser beam with at least three different wavelengths.

8. The laser light source of claim 7, wherein the at least three different wavelengths comprise: a first wavelength in a red wavelength range between approximately 635 nm and approximately 780 nm, a second wavelength in a green wavelength range between approximately 520 nm and approximately 540 nm, and a third wavelength in a blue wavelength range between approximately 400 nm and approximately 470 nm.

9. The laser light source of claim 1, wherein the superposed ones of the respective signal beam and the respective idler beam have different wavelengths and are incoherent from each other, and wherein the incoherent laser beam is capable of producing an image with reduced speckle noise.

10. A laser projector for producing an image with reduced speckle noise on a projection surface, the laser projector comprising: a laser light source comprising: at least two optical devices each comprising a respective nonlinear optical medium for producing a respective signal beam and a respective idler beam; and a superposition device configured to superpose one of the respective signal beam and the respective idler beam produced by each of the at least two optical devices to produce an incoherent laser beam having at least two different wavelengths; and a scanner arranged to provide a two-dimensional deflection of the incoherent laser beam to produce the image on the projection surface.

11. The laser projector of claim 10, wherein the scanner comprises at least one mirror.

12. The laser projector of claim 10, wherein the superposition device comprises at least two cube-shaped prisms each being arranged downstream of a corresponding one of the at least two optical devices.

13. The laser projector of claim 10, wherein the laser light source further comprises at least one pump source configured to produce at least one pump beam for exciting the respective nonlinear optical medium of each of the at least two optical devices.

14. The laser projector of claim 13, wherein the at least one pump source is configured to operate at a pulse frequency identical to a clock frequency for producing pixels of the image on the projection surface.

15. The laser projector of claim 13, further comprising a controller configured to modulate an amplitude of the at least one pump beam of the at least one pump source based on the image to be produced on the projection surface.

16. The laser projector of claim 15, wherein the controller is configured to actuate the scanner to produce the image with a specified resolution and a specified image refresh rate.

17. The laser projector of claim 13, further comprising a lens configured to focus the incoherent laser beam at an adjustable or predetermined distance from the lens, at which the projection surface is positioned.

18. A method comprising: producing a first signal beam and a first idler beam by a first optical device of at least two optical devices in a laser light source, each of the at least two optical devices comprising a respective nonlinear optical medium for producing a respective signal beam and a respective idler beam; producing a second signal beam and a second idler beam by a second optical device of the at least two optical devices in the laser light source; and superposing one of the first signal beam and the first idler beam and one of the second signal beam and the second idler beam to obtain an incoherent laser beam having at least two different wavelengths, wherein the one of the first signal beam and the first idler beam has a first wavelength of the at least two different wavelengths, and the one of the second signal beam and the second idler beam has a second wavelength of the at least two different wavelengths, wherein the second wavelength is different from the first wavelength.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising: producing a third signal beam and a third idler beam by a third optical device in the laser light source, wherein one of the third signal beam and the third idler beam is superposed with the one of the first signal beam and the first idler beam and the one of the second signal beam and the second idler beam to obtain an incoherent laser beam with at least three different wavelengths, wherein the one of the third signal beam and the third idler beam has a third wavelength different from the first wavelength and the second wavelength.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising: deflecting the incoherent laser beam in two dimensions by a scanner to produce an image on a projection surface, wherein the laser light source and the scanner is in a laser projector.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0034] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a laser projector, which has a laser light source for producing a laser beam with three different wavelengths for the purposes of producing a color image.

[0035] FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a laser light source for the laser projector of FIG. 1, which produces a non-coherent laser beam for the purposes of suppressing speckle noise.

[0036] Identical reference signs are used in the following description of the drawings for the same or functionally equivalent components.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a laser light source 1, which includes three light sources 3a-c (A1, A2, and A3) in the form of three laser diodes. The three light sources 3a-c are configured to produce three laser beams P1, P2, P3, of which the first laser beam P1 has a wavelength .sub.R in the red wavelength range, the second laser beam P2 has a second wavelength .sub.G in the green wavelength range, and the third laser beam P3 has a third wavelength .sub.B in the blue wavelength range. The three laser beams P1, P2, P3, produced by the three light sources 3a-c, are each deflected through 90 by three mirrored cuboid prism cubes 4a-c and superposed in a collinear fashion, and so a single laser beam 2 with three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B is produced at the output of the laser light source 1.

[0038] As may likewise be identified in FIG. 1, the laser light source 1 forms part of a laser projector 10 for producing an image B on a projection surface 13 (screen). For the purposes of producing the image B, the laser projector 10 includes a scanning device (or a scanner) 12 with a scanning mirror 11, which is rotatable about two axes for the two-dimensional deflection of the laser beam 2. For the purposes of producing a two-dimensional deflection movement of the scanner mirror 11, the scanning device 12 includes a rotation driver 9. The rotation driver 9 is configured to drive the scanning mirror 11 to deflect the laser beam 2 onto the projection surface 13 with a high scanning frequency to construct the image B, line-by-line, on the projection surface 13.

[0039] The laser projector 10 also includes a focusing device 8 to focus the laser beam 2 onto the projection surface 13. In the shown example, the focusing device 8 is a lens that is arranged between the laser light source 1 and the scanning mirror 11. However, it is understood that the focusing device 8 can also be arranged in the beam path of the laser beam 2 downstream of the scanning device 12.

[0040] Moreover, the laser projector 10 includes a control device (or controller) 7, which actuates the three light sources 3a-c to individually modulate the amplitudes A1, A2, A3 of the three laser beams P1, P2, P3. The control device 7 also serves to actuate the rotation driver 9, said actuation being implemented in synchronized fashion with the modulation of the amplitudes A1, A2, A3 to ensure that a desired color is produced at a respective pixel of the image B on the projection surface 13.

[0041] The laser beam 2 with the three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B, which is produced by the laser light source 1 of FIG. 1, is coherent and therefore leads to speckle noise of the image B produced on the projection surface 13. To avoid the occurrence of speckle noise, or to suppress this to the greatest possible extent (practically to 100%), a laser light source 1a for producing an incoherent laser beam 2, as illustrated in FIG. 2, is used in the laser projector 10 of FIG. 1.

[0042] The laser light source 1a of FIG. 2 has three optical devices in the form of optical parametric oscillators 5a-c, into which three pump beams P1, P2, P3 are coupled, said pump beams, like in FIG. 1, being produced by three laser or pump sources 3a-c in the form of laser diodes. Unlike in FIG. 1, the three pump beams P1, P2, P3 are produced by three structurally identical laser diodes in the laser light source 1a shown in FIG. 2; i.e., the wavelengths .sub.P1, .sub.P2, .sub.P3 of the three pump beams P1, P2, P3 coincide in the shown example and may lie in the range between 350 nm and 400 nm, for example.

[0043] The optical parametric oscillators 5a-c each have a nonlinear optical medium in the form of a nonlinear crystal 6a-c. By way of example, the nonlinear optical crystals 6a-c can be lithium triborate crystals, but also other optical nonlinear crystals, for example beta barium borate (BBO). What is essential is that a parametric down-conversion (PDC) process may occur in the respective nonlinear crystal. Examples of nonlinear crystals, in which such a process may occur, are specified in U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,025 B1.

[0044] In a PDC process, the respective pump beam P1, P2, P3 interacts with the nonlinear crystal 6a-c, where two new light fields are produced, which are referred to as signal beam S1, S2, S3 and idler beam I1, I2, I3 below. The PDC process conserves the energy .sub.P1, .sub.P2, .sub.P3 and the momentum {right arrow over (k)}.sub.P1, {right arrow over (k)}.sub.P2, {right arrow over (k)}.sub.P3 of the respective pump beam P1, P2, P3; i.e., .sub.Pi=.sub.Si+=1, 2, 3) applies to the energy, where .sub.Si denotes the energy of the respective signal beam S1, S2, S3 and .sub.Ii denotes the energy of the respective idler beam I1, I2, I3. The corresponding momenta are also conserved, i.e., the following applies: {right arrow over (k)}.sub.Pi={right arrow over (k)}.sub.Si+{right arrow over (k)}.sub.Ii.

[0045] The three optical parametric oscillators 5a-c each form an optical resonator, in which the nonlinear optical crystal 6a-c is arranged. The optical parametric oscillators 5a-c are operated under the laser threshold (i.e., not in the gain regime) in to avoid a (partial) stimulated emission arising, which would cause an unwanted phase relationship. When operating the optical parametric oscillators 5a-c below the laser threshold, the power of the signal beam S1, S2, S3 or of the idler beam I1, I2, I3 can scale substantially linearly with the power of the respective pump beam P1, P2, P3.

[0046] The energy Pi of the respective pump beam P1, P2, P3 is divided among the respective signal beam S1, S2, S3 and the respective idler beam I1, I2, I3 in the PDC process; i.e., the respective signal beam S1, S2, S3 and the respective idler beam I1, I2, I3 each have a wavelength that deviates from the associated pump beam P1, P2, P3. By way of a suitable choice of the respective nonlinear optical crystal 6a-c or by way of a suitable setting of, e.g., the temperature of the respective nonlinear optical crystal 6a-c, it is possible to implement a desired subdivision of the energy .sub.Pi of the respective pump beams P1, P2, P3 among the respective signal beam S1, S2, S3 and the respective idler beam I1, I2, I3.

[0047] The energy .sub.P of the respective pump beams P1, P2, P3 can be subdivided in such a way that, in the first nonlinear optical crystal 6a, the signal beam S1 has a wavelength .sub.R in the red wavelength range between approximately 635 nm and approximately 780 nm. Accordingly, the signal beam S2, which is produced by the second nonlinear crystal 6b, can have a wavelength .sub.G in the green wavelength range, e.g., between approximately 520 nm and approximately 540 nm. In the nonlinear interaction in the third nonlinear crystal 6c, it is possible to produce a third signal beam S3 with a wavelength .sub.B in the blue wavelength range between approximately 400 nm and approximately 470 nm.

[0048] In the example shown in FIG. 2, the three signal beams S1, S2, S3, which are produced by the three optical parametric oscillators 5a-c, are superposed in a superposition device 4 which, to this end, has three optical elements 4a-c in the form of cube-shaped prisms. In FIG. 2, the optical elements 4a-c of the superposition device 4 are wavelength-selective optical elements, which are provided with a (respectively different) wavelength-selective coating.

[0049] The first signal beam S1 with the red wavelength .sub.R is deflected at the first wavelength-selective element (or wavelength selector) 4a, while both the first pump beam P1 and the first idler beam I1 are filtered. Accordingly, the second signal beam S2 with the green wavelength .sub.G is deflected at the second wavelength-selective element 4b, while the second idler beam 12 and the second pump beam P2 are filtered. The third signal beam S3 with the blue wavelength .sub.B is deflected at the third wavelength-selective element 4c, while the third idler beam I3 and the third pump beam P3 are filtered.

[0050] On account of the arrangement of the three wavelength-selective elements 4a-c in a line, the three signal beams S1, S2, S3 are superposed in collinear fashion and form a laser beam 2, which has three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B in the red, in the green and in the blue wavelength ranges, to produce the desired color image B on the projection surface 13. It is understood that the wavelength-selective optical elements 4a-c need not necessarily form part of the superposition device 4 but may optionally be arranged in the beam path between the respective optical parametric oscillator 5a-c and the superposition device 4 to suppress the respectively unwanted radiation components. It is also possible to use other (optical) filter elements in place of wavelength-selective optical elements 4a-c.

[0051] Optionally, it is also possible to realize a superposition of the three signal beams S1, S2, S3 only on the projection surface 13this is not illustrated in FIG. 2. The laser beam 2 with the three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B is produced only on, or in the region of, the projection surface 13 in this case. Here, preferably, provision is made of, in particular, three scanning devices, each with at least one scanning mirror for the two-dimensional deflection of the first signal beam S1, the second signal beam S2 and the third signal beam S3, as an alternative to the three cube-shaped prisms 4a-c of the aforementioned type, where the three signal beams S1, S2, S3 are each steered to a respective pixel of the image B on the projection surface 13. In this case, the three scanning devices form a superposition device for producing the laser beam 2 with the three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B.

[0052] As described above, practically no speckle noise is caused on the projection surface 13 by the incoherent laser beam 2, which is produced by the laser light source 1a shown in FIG. 2, since the signal beams S1, S2, S3 each have phase fluctuations on account of their production in the nonlinear crystals 6a-c, said phase fluctuations occurring on timescales of the order of picoseconds. Therefore, the three signal beams S1, S2, S3 each have the fluctuation behaviour of thermal light sources; i.e., each individual one of the three signal beams S1, S2, S3 is incoherent. In contrast thereto, a respective signal beam S1, S2, S3 and a respective idler beam I1, I2, I3, which are produced together in one and the same nonlinear optical crystal 6a-c, are strongly correlated. For this reason, only the signal beams S1, S2, S3 of the respective optical parametric oscillators 5a-c are superposed in each case in the laser light source 1a shown in FIG. 2.

[0053] It is understood that the three idler beams I1, I2, I3 can also be superposed to form the laser beam 2 instead of the superposition of the signal beams S1, S2, S3. It is likewise possible to superpose one idler beam, for example the first idler beam I1, with two signal beams, for example with the second and the third signal beam S2, S3, or to superpose two of the idler beams, for example the first and the second idler beam I1, I2, with one signal beam, for example with the third signal beam S3.

[0054] Below, a method is described for operating the laser light source 1a of the above-described type. Here, a signal beam S1, S2, S3 and an idler beam I1, I2, I3 are respectively produced by a first optical device 5a of the three optical devices 5a-c, a second optical device 5b of the three optical devices 5a-c and a third optical device 5c of the three optical devices 5a-c. Here, either the signal beam S1 or the idler beam I1 of the first optical device 5a is selected with a first wavelength .sub.R of the three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B, where either the signal beam S2 or the idler beam 12 of the second optical device 5b with a second wavelength .sub.G, differing from the first wavelength 4, of the three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B, is selected, and where either the signal beam S3 or the idler beam I3 of the third optical device 5c with a third wavelength 4, differing from the first wavelength .sub.R and the second wavelength .sub.G, of the three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B is selected. Here, the laser beam 2 with the three different wavelengths .sub.R, .sub.G, .sub.B is produced by virtue of the respectively selected signal beam S1, S2, S3 or idler beam I1, I2, I3 of the first optical device 5a, the second optical device 5b and the third optical device 5c being superposed.

[0055] A method for operating a laser projector 10 of the above-described type can include operating the laser light source 1a. The laser light source 1a can be operated according to the above-explained method for operating the laser light source 1a. The method can include operating the laser light source 1a to produce multiple signal beams and idler beams by corresponding optical devices in the laser light source 1a. Each of the optical devices includes a respective nonlinear optical medium for producing a respective signal beam and a respective idler beam. One of the respective signal beam and the respective idler beam produced by each of the optical devices is superposed together, e.g., by a superposition device, to obtain an incoherent laser beam having at least two different wavelengths. The superposed beams have different wavelengths and are incoherent from each other. The laser beam can be deflected in two dimensions by a scanner of the laser projector 10 to produce an image on a projection surface. The image can be speckle-free or with reduced speckle noise.

[0056] In conclusion, it is possible to realize a laser projector 10, in which the image B is practically free from speckle noise, with the laser light source 1a shown in FIG. 2. It is understood that the laser light source 1a of FIG. 2 or a suitably modified laser light source 1a, which, e.g., produces a laser beam 2 with only two or, optionally, with more than three different wavelengths, also can be used advantageously in other imaging methods or in metrology.

OTHER EMBODIMENTS

[0057] A number of embodiments of the present disclosure have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.