Optical beam pulse generator

Claim 1

An optical beam pulse generator comprising: a. a segmented reflecting means aligned to receive an input light beam and including a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart mirror facets defining a gap between each pair of adjacent facets and having a centrally located, vertically oriented axis of rotation, the reflective surfaces of the mirror facets being oriented substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation of said segmented reflecting means and including mirror facet to axis errors; b. means for rotating said segmented reflecting means to sequentially reflect the input beam to generate a pulsed beam; c. means for redirecting the pulsed beam back onto said segmented reflecting means to generate a redirected pulsed beam vertically displaced from the pulsed beam by a distance related to the mirror facet to axis error and laterally offset from the pulsed beam by a distance related to the angle between the mirror facet and the input light beam, wherein the redirected pulsed beam is reflected from each of said mirror facets to generate a pulsed reflected output beam; and d. the input beam being aligned to alternatively pass through the gaps in said segmented reflecting means such that the optical beam pulse generator alternatively produces pulsed non-reflected output beams and pulsed reflected output beams.