Super radiant laser illuminator and image amplifier

Claim 2

A laser illuminator and image amplifier comprising: a superradiant laser medium of a size and shape to permit light emission in a plurality of off-axis modes; means for pumping said superradiant laser medium to cause spontaneous superradiant light emission from said laser medium; optical means for focusing the light spontaneously emitted from said superradiant laser medium on an object to be illuminated and for collecting light reflected from the object so illuminated and returning the reflected light through said laser medium a single time only to stimulate the emission of radiation therefrom to form an amplified in intensity image of the object illuminated, said image being non-regeneratively amplified by said single passage of the light reflected from the object illuminated through said laSer medium.

Claim 3

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 wherein the overall single pass gain of the apparatus is at least 3db.

Claim 4

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 wherein said laser medium is a fluid laser medium.

Claim 5

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 3 wherein said laser material is a gas selected from the group consisting of copper vapor, lead vapor, neon and nitrogen.

Claim 6

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 3 wherein said laser material is a gas and wherein said pumping means comprises means for producing an electrical discharge in said gas.

Claim 7

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 further comprising means to cause pulsed emission of light radiation from said body of laser material.

Claim 8

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 further comprising a reflector disposed behind the object illuminated so as to provide a bright field image.

Claim 9

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 wherein said optical means comprises a lens system disposed between one end of said body of laser material and the object to be illuminated, said lens system being arranged to focus substantially all the super-radiant light emission from said one end of said laser medium onto the object to be illuminated.

Claim 10

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 8 wherein said lens system is arranged to form an image of the object illuminated in the region of the opposite end of said body of laser material, the field of said image extending over substantially the whole cross-section of said laser medium.

Claim 11

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 9 further comprising a lens system disposed adjacent the opposite end of said laser medium for projecting the image formed by the first lens system.

Claim 12

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 wherein the ratio of the diameter of said laser medium to the length of said laser medium is greater than 1 to 200.

Claim 13

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 wherein the Fresnel number of said laser medium is greater than 20.

Claim 14

Apparatus for forming an amplified image of an object at an image plane, comprising: lens means disposed between the object and the image plane for collecting light from the object and forming an image of the object at the image plane; a superradiant laser medium of a size and shape to permit coherent light amplification in a plurality of off-axis modes; and means for pumping said laser medium to cause spontaneous superradiant light emission from said laser medium, said laser medium being disposed between the object and the image plane so that light spontaneously emitted from said superradiant laser medium illuminates the object and light reflected from said object passes through said lens means and said laser medium a single time only to stimulate emission of radiation therefrom to form an amplified in intensity image of the object illuminated, said image being non-regeneratively amplified by said single passage through said laser medium.

Claim 15

Apparatus for forming an amplified image of an object at an image plane, comprising: lens means disposed between the object and the image plane for collecting light from the object and forming an image of the object at the image plane; a superradiant laser medium of a size and shape to permit coherent light amplification in a plurality of off-axis modes; and means for pumping said laser medium to cause spontaneous superradiant light emission from said laser medium, said laser medium being disposed between the object and the image plane so that light spontaneously emitted from said superradiant laser medium illuminates the object and light reflected from said object passes through said lens means and said laser medium a single time only to stimulate emission of radiation therefrom to form an amplified in intensity image of the object illuminated, said image being non-regeneratively amplified by said single passage through said laser medium.

Claim 16

The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said laser medium is optically uniform.

Claim 17

The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said laser medium is a fluid laser medium.

Claim 18

The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the overall single pass gain of the apparatus is at least 3 db.

Claim 19

The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the Fresnel number of said laser medium is at least 20.

Claim 20

The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the ends of said laser medium are substantially transparent and non-reflecting.

Claim 21

A laser illuminator and image amplifier comprising: a superradiant laser medium of a size and shape to permit light emission in a plurality of off-axis modes; means for pumping said laser medium to cause spontaneous superradiant emission of light radiation from the ends of said laser medium, the light radiation from one end of said laser medium falling on the object to be illuminated; means foR returning at least a portion of the light radiation impinging on the object illuminated through said laser medium a single time only to stimulate emission of radiation therefrom, the returned light being non-regeneratively coherently amplified by said single passage through said laser medium; and means disposed adjacent the opposite end of said laser medium for focussing the coherently amplified returned light at an image plane to provide an intense image of the object illuminated.

Claim 22

A laser illuminator and image amplifier comprising: a superradiant laser medium of a size and shape to permit light emission in a plurality of off-axis modes; means for pumping said laser medium to cause spontaneous superradiant emission of light radiation from the ends of said laser medium, the light radiation from one end of said laser medium falling on the object to be illuminated; means foR returning at least a portion of the light radiation impinging on the object illuminated through said laser medium a single time only to stimulate emission of radiation therefrom, the returned light being non-regeneratively coherently amplified by said single passage through said laser medium; and means disposed adjacent the opposite end of said laser medium for focussing the coherently amplified returned light at an image plane to provide an intense image of the object illuminated.

Claim 23

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 19 wherein said returning means comprises a reflector disposed behind the object illuminated.

Claim 24

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 1 wherein the gain of said laser medium is at least 30 db/meter.

Claim 27

The method of claim 22 further comprising the step of focussing the superradiant light emitted from said laser medium on said object.

Claim 28

The method of claim 22 including the step of projecting said amplified image of said object.

Claim 29

The method of claim 22 including the step of providing a reflector behind said object so as to provide a bright field image of said object.

Claim 30

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 19 wherein the intensity of said image is sufficient to vaporize the surface of a material disposed at said image plane in a pattern corresponding to said image.

Claim 31

The laser illuminator and image amplifier of claim 26 wherein the size of said image is smaller than the size of the object illuminated.