Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 5
Claim 1
Independent Claim
233 words
A beam shaping optical system comprising: a collimating means for collimating a laser beam; and a prism coupler disposed in an optical path of said collimated laser beam and including an optical prism, a gap layer stacked on a reflecting face of said optical prism and having a refractive index lower than that of said optical prism, and a waveguide layer stacked on said gap layer and having a refractive index lower than that of said optical prism and higher than said refractive index of said gap layer, said prism coupler being arranged so that a plane including a shorter diameter of said collimated laser beam crosses perpendicularly said reflecting face of said optical prism, and that an incident angle δ of said laser beam made incident into said optical prism with respect to said reflecting face satisfies the following relation: δ=sin.sup.-1 (N/n.sub.p) where N represents an equivalent refractive index of said waveguide layer, and n p represents said refractive index of said optical prism, said prism coupler being adapted so that each of said reflecting face, said gap layer and said waveguide layer extends beyond a part of said laser beam projected on said reflecting face toward an emitting side of said laser beam; said gap layer being formed so as not to increase in thickness from an incident side of said laser beam toward an emitting side of said laser beam.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
233 words
A beam shaping optical system comprising: a collimating means for collimating a laser beam; and a prism coupler disposed in an optical path of said collimated laser beam and including an optical prism, a gap layer stacked on a reflecting face of said optical prism and having a refractive index lower than that of said optical prism, and a waveguide layer stacked on said gap layer and having a refractive index lower than that of said optical prism and higher than said refractive index of said gap layer, said prism coupler being arranged so that a plane including a shorter diameter of said collimated laser beam crosses perpendicularly said reflecting face of said optical prism, and that an incident angle δ of said laser beam made incident into said optical prism with respect to said reflecting face satisfies the following relation: δ=sin.sup.-1 (N/n.sub.p) where N represents an equivalent refractive index of said waveguide layer, and n p represents said refractive index of said optical prism, said prism coupler being adapted so that each of said reflecting face, said gap layer and said waveguide layer extends beyond a part of said laser beam projected on said reflecting face toward an emitting side of said laser beam; said gap layer being formed so as not to increase in thickness from an incident side of said laser beam toward an emitting side of said laser beam.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
62 words
A beam shaping optical system according to claim 1, in which a transparent substrate is stacked on said waveguide layer, said transparent substrate having a refractive index lower than that of said waveguide layer, and said optical prism and said gap layer are adhered to each other by an adhesive layer having a refractive index higher than that of said waveguide layer.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
50 words
A beam shaping optical system according to claim 1, in which said prism coupler is arranged with respect to the collimated laser beam such that an optical axis of said collimated laser beam and an optical axis of a laser beam emitted from said prism coupler form a straight line.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
38 words
A beam shaping optical system according to claim 1, which is adapted so that the thickness of said gap layer gradually decreases from an incident side of said laser beam toward an emitting side of said laser beam.