A Fabry-Perot etalon filter for use as a telescope filter and method for making such etalons is disclosed. Particularly, an air-gap etalon having a first etalon plate and a second etalon plate being separated by a plurality of spacers. Said separation defining a gap. Said spacers being cut from a small area of a spacer substrate which has been formed to a high degree of uniformity. As a result, the spacers have a high degree of uniform flatness, parallelism, and thickness. By optically contactin...

Methods and apparatus are employed to enhance the efficiency and applicability of Fabry-Perot interferometers. In existing devices, light introduced at a first off-axis point on the image plane is partially transmitted through the interferometer to the detector and partially reflected to a second off-axis point on the image plane. Broadly, the invention re-uses the light reflected to the second off-axis point rather than discarding it. As one example, the reflected light is guided to a third off...

A durable etalon based laser output coupler. The output coupler is especially useful for ultraviolet lasers such as an ArF excimer laser or an F.sub.2 laser. The principal elements of the etalon based output coupler are two prisms aligned so that a first surface of one of the two prisms is parallel to a first surface of the other prism. The first of the two prisms have a second surface forming an angle with a beam from a laser cavity equal to or approximately equal to Brewster's angle. The secon...

A tunable laser and laser tuning method based on the use of a tunable etalon in reflection as a mirror within a laser cavity and forming an end reflective surface thereof. The laser emission wavelength is not necessarily at a wavelength of peak etalon reflectivity. A preferred embodiment makes use of a microelectromechanical etalon to tune an external cavity semiconductor.

Two etalons in series may be angled to reduce parasitic reflections in the space between the two. The etalons may be soldered on either side of a post having an aperture there through to allow light to pass. Various sized solder balls and/or solder pads may be used to create the desired angle and to secure the etalons to the post. Alternatively, a lip on the post may create the desired angle. Once secured to the post, rather than aligning the etalons by pick and place methods individually, the p...

A tunable laser and laser tuning method based on the use of a tunable etalon in reflection as a mirror within a laser cavity. The laser emission wavelength is not necessarily at a wavelength of peak etalon reflectivity. A preferred embodiment makes use of a microelectromechanical etalon to tune an external cavity semiconductor laser.

An optical logic apparatus includes a plurality of logic elements on a single passive, nonlinear Fabry-Perot etalon characterized by a shift in transmissivity in response to increased incident light, a source producing a probe beam having a first wavelength which does not significantly modify the index or refraction of the nonlinear medium, and a plurality of sources of input beams each representing a respective logic signal. The input beams all have a wavelength which significantly modifier the...

A line narrowed laser having a grating based line narrowing module and etalon-based line narrowing output coupler and a technique for tuning the laser. The etalon based output coupler is adjusted to preferentially reflect light at or near the spectral maximum produced by the grating. Substantial improvement in line narrowing results from the amplification in the laser resonance chamber of light at or near the grating spectral maximum which is preferentially reflected by the etalon based output c...

A line narrowed laser having a grating based line narrowing module, etalon-based line narrowing output coupler and a technique for tuning the laser. The etalon based output coupler is adjusted to preferentially reflect light at or near the spectral maximum produced by the grating. Substantial improvement in line narrowing results from the amplification in the laser resonance chamber of light at or near the grating spectral maximum which is preferentially reflected by the etalon based output coup...

An adjustable etalon mode selector is mounted within the optical cavity of a laser and includes a pair of spaced prisms mounted along the optical axis of the cavity with the laser beam passing therethrough and means for selectively adjusting the spacing between the prisms in a manner such that the resonant frequency of the laser cavity and etalon combination remains constant during the adjustment of the prism spacing in order that a particular mode of the operating wavelength spectrum of the las...