SINGLE AND MULTI-STAGE HIGH POWER OPTICAL ISOLATORS USING A SINGLE POLARIZING ELEMENT

Abstract

An optical isolator for generally collimated laser radiation includes a single polarizing element, at least one Faraday optical element, at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element disposed at the single polarizing element, at least one reflective optical element for reflecting radiation to provide an even number of passes through the at least one Faraday optical element, and a magnetic structure. The magnetic structure is capable of generating a magnetic field within the at least one Faraday optical element that is generally aligned with the even number of passes along a beam propagation axis. The optical isolator is configured to receive generally collimated laser radiation, which passes through the single polarizing element and the at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element and which makes at least two passes through the at least one Faraday optical element, whereby generally collimated laser radiation is output from the optical isolator.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to high power optical isolators and more particularly to high power single and multi-stage polarization maintaining [“PM”] and polarization insensitive [“PI”] optical isolators.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Optical isolators are routinely used to decouple a laser oscillator from downstream laser amplifier noise radiation and/or target reflections. Optical isolators are typically comprised of a Faraday rotator surrounded by polarizers that are aligned with the input and output linear polarization states. A Faraday rotator is typically comprised of a non-reciprocal, optical element in a strong magnetic field that is co-axially aligned with the laser radiation so that the plane of polarization is rotated by 45 degrees. In an optical isolator, the non-reciprocal nature of the Faraday effect causes the plane of linear polarization in the backward propagating direction to be rotated an additional 45 degrees resulting in a polarization state which is 90 degrees to the transmission axis of the input polarizer. This results in reverse propagating radiation to experience high transmission losses while allowing forward propagating radiation to experience low transmission losses. Optical isolators suitable for randomly polarized light are also common and are termed polarization insensitive [“PI”] isolators such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,073.

The sensitivity of distributed feedback diode lasers and other components in telecom systems to feedback from backward propagating radiation has prompted the development of multi-stage PI isolators to increase isolation to 60 dB. An example of such a multi-stage isolator is a two stage device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,445. To address the bulk and expense of high power Faraday rotators in the near infrared, the amount of Faraday rotation as given by the following equation has been examined:

θ(λ,T)=V(λ,T)×H(r,T)×L_F   (1)

where:

• • λ(λ,T): The Faraday rotation angle (a function of wavelength, λ, and temperature, T);
  • V (λ,T): A proportionality constant, termed the Verdet constant, of the Faraday element (a function of wavelength, λ, and temperature, T);

H(r,T): The strength of the magnetic field in the direction of light through the Faraday element (a function of radial position r across the beam and temperature, T); and

• • L_F: The optical path length within the Faraday element.

Equation 1 states that the Faraday rotation angle can be increased by either an increase in the Verdet constant V (λ,T), the magnetic field strength H(T), or the Faraday element length L_F. In order to make an optical isolator as small and inexpensive as possible, multi-pass Faraday rotators have been disclosed, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,909,612; 5,715,080 and 7,057,791, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. The reduced gap between the magnets significantly improves the magnetic efficiency and uniformity of the magnetic assembly. As disclosed in U.S. Publication No. 2015/0124318 (which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety), these improvements increase the effective magnetic field H(r,T) and allow for reductions in the optical path length L_F, magnetic material volume, and Faraday optic volume. The reduction of the optical path length L_F, is additionally advantageous in high power applications for reductions in beam degradation due to absorption.

A fiber to fiber optical isolator for low power laser radiation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,132. This optical isolator is applicable to only fiber to fiber devices and requires an internal focusing lens for proper operation. In addition, optical damage due to high fluence levels of the small beam diameters at the fibers as well as in the birefringent crystal plate prevents scaling of this device to powers above 10W.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides PM and PI multi-pass isolator forms that are simple to align, have few optical parts to assemble and work well with scalable beam diameters large enough to prevent optical damage in the optical elements of the isolator when used with high peak and average power laser sources. The present invention relates to high peak and average power optical isolators and more particularly to high power single and multi-stage polarization maintaining [“PM”] and polarization insensitive [“PI”] optical isolators with improved size, improved alignment simplicity, reduced parts count, and reduced cost.

According to an aspect of the present invention, an optical isolator for generally collimated laser radiation is provisioned with one or more isolation stages using a single polarizing element, a multi-pass Faraday rotator through which light passes an even number of times and one 45 degree reciprocal polarization rotation element per isolation stage. The single polarizing element enables simple alignment and reduced parts count in an optical isolator that is scalable in beam diameter for high power operation.

In a preferred embodiment, the multi-pass Faraday rotator comprises a Faraday optic with a highly reflective coating on one optical face and an anti-reflective coating on the opposite optical face nearest to the single polarizing element. A magnetic field generally aligned to the beam path in the multi-pass Faraday rotator causes 45 degree non-reciprocal polarization rotation in the Faraday optic for each isolation stage.

The 45 degree reciprocal polarization rotation element may comprise a quartz wave plate and may be bonded, such as by adhesive free optical contact for high power applications, to the surface of the single polarizing element at only a portion of the single polarizing element such that the wave plate is located in only one pass of the beam path and is aligned for the opposite sense rotation that is opposite to the Faraday non-reciprocal rotation in the transmission direction.

Optionally, a high reflection region may be coated onto the single polarizing element's optical face that is adjacent to the anti-reflection coated surface of the Faraday optic, whereby increased beam overlap and reduced overall size can be realized for an even number of passes greater than two. If the single polarizing element is a fused silica polarizing beam splitter, a polarization maintaining or PM isolator suitable for high power with only two separate optical components is realized. Similarly, if the single polarizer element is a fused silica polarization splitting beam displacer, a polarization insensitive or PI isolator with only two separate optical components is realized with no critical alignment required. Both forms of isolators have readily scalable beam diameters for high power operation. High power beam quality is limited only by the thermal optic properties of the Faraday rotation optical element.

The present invention thus is an improvement over the systems and devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,909,612; 5,715,080 and 7,057,791, where two or more polarizing elements are used and high reflection faces are placed upon opposing optical faces of multi-pass Faraday optics to promote more than two passes through the Faraday optic. In contrast to the systems disclosed in these patents, the system of the present invention uses a single polarizing element to simplify construction while also reducing size and cost. In the multi-stage isolator form, the system of the present invention can be constructed with only two optical components and has the further benefit that the isolator is self-aligning with respect to polarization throughout the multi-stage isolator. In addition, the use of high reflection coating region(s) on the optical face of the polarizing element closest to the Faraday optic improves the magnetic efficiency by increasing the number of beam passes through the Faraday optic while maintaining beams that are generally parallel to the magnetic field, thereby reducing the thickness of the Faraday optic and minimizing the required magnetic structure. These distinctions can all be made while increasing the beam size, as required, to prevent optical damage to optical elements within the isolator to scale the power as desired up to the limit imposed by the thermal optic properties of the Faraday optic material used.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, multi-stage isolators can be realized by adding a high reflection coating region on the single polarizing element's optical surface furthest from the Faraday optic between duplicate isolation stages such as described above for the preferred embodiment. In the case of a PI isolator, this high reflection coating is best applied to the non-bonded external surface of a quartz quarter-wave plate to flip polarizations between pairs of isolation stages to make path-lengths identical for both polarizations. The quarter wave-plate may be first bonded, such as by optical contact, with its optic axis aligned 45 degrees to each polarization axis of the fused silica polarization splitting beam displacer. Again, simple multiple stage isolators with only two separate optical components that are self-aligning with respect to polarization for easy assembly are possible.

These and other objects, advantages, purposes and features of the present invention will become apparent upon review of the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a PM single stage, dual pass isolator (showing forward propagation of the beam) in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 1B is another perspective view of the PM single stage, dual pass isolator of FIG. 1A, showing reverse propagation of the beam;

FIG. 1C is a perspective view of a PM single stage, quad pass isolator in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 1D is a perspective view of a PM dual stage, dual pass isolator in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2A is a perspective view of a PI single stage, dual pass isolator (showing forward propagation of the beam) in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2B is another perspective view of the PI single stage, dual pass isolator of FIG. 2A, showing reverse propagation of the beam;

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a PI dual stage, dual pass isolator (showing forward propagation of the beam) in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3B is another perspective view of the PI dual stage, dual pass isolator of FIG. 3A, showing reverse propagation of the beam; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a PI dual stage, dual pass isolator (showing reverse propagation of the beam) with a triple layer displacer in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings and the illustrative embodiments depicted therein, FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a PM single stage, dual pass isolator for generally collimated laser radiation that is comprised of only two separate optical components in accordance with the invention. Collimated laser radiation source 1100 with substantially linear p polarization is incident upon single polarization element 1101 comprised of quartz half-waveplate 1103 bonded, such as by adhesive free optical contact, to fused silica PBS 1102. The optic axis of half-waveplate 1103 is rotated by an angle of 22.5 degrees with respect to the original linear p polarization axis (shown as vertical in FIG. 1A), such that highly polarized p polarization transmitted through polarizing coating 1108 is rotated by +45 degrees of reciprocal rotation in half-waveplate 1103 as shown by the circled polarization state arrow 1109.

Laser radiation at 1109 is then incident upon Faraday optic 1104 (such as a Terbium Gallium Garnet (TGG) or other suitable Faraday optic element) which is immersed in a magnetic field that is generally aligned to the beam path, where the beam receives −22.5 degrees of non-reciprocal Faraday polarization rotation for each pass of Faraday optic 1104. Reflection coating 1105 on Faraday optic 1104 facilitates the dual pass beam path in Faraday optic 1104 for −45 degrees of total non-reciprocal polarization rotation which restores the original p polarization state in beam 1106′ which is then re-incident upon single polarization element 1101 at point 1110 (where the re-incident location is at a location that does not have the half wave plate 1103 at the polarization element). Radiation from point 1110 is highly p polarized output radiation 1106 upon final pass through the single polarization element 1101. In view of the angle β between collimated input radiation 1100 and output radiation 1106 as well as the separation L1 between single polarization element 1101 and Faraday optic 1104, half-waveplate 1103 is dimensioned and positioned to not clip input 1100 or output 1106 radiation.

The single stage, dual pass isolator of FIG. 1A also limits or precludes light traveling in the reverse direction from reaching the source of light beam 1100 in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIG. 1B, light 1120 received at single polarizing element 1101 at the side or region of the element that does not have the half wave plate 1103, passes through the single polarizing element and through the faraday optic 1104, which, after it reflects off reflector 1105 so as to make a second pass through the optic 1104, is rotated −45 degrees (beam 1121), which then passes through the half wave plate 1103, which rotates the beam −45 degrees, such that the beam 1122 is an s polarized beam 1122. Such an s polarized beam is reflected by the polarizing coating 1108 away from the source of the light beam 1100.

Optionally, if more than two passes are desired through the PM single stage isolator, a reflector may be added at the single polarizing element such that light (after two passes through the faraday optic) reflects back toward the faraday optic for a third and fourth pass (such a single stage, quad pass isolator may be suitable for small magnets or a low Verdet constant faraday optic). Such a configuration is shown in FIG. 1C, where the single polarizing element 1201 has a half wave plate 1203 and a polarizing coating 1208 similar to single polarizing element 1101, discussed above, and the isolator includes a Faraday optic 1204 and reflector 1205 similar to the optic 1104 and reflector 1105 discussed above. Single polarizing element 1201 includes a reflector 1211, such as at a center region between the half wave plate 1203 and the point or region 1210 where the light beam passes back through the single polarizing element 1201. In this configuration, the Faraday optic 1204 comprises a thinner optic or less powered magnetic field, such that each pass through the optic only rotates the polarized light 11.25 degrees (half the rotation achieved by Faraday optic 1104, discussed above), whereby after four passes through the Faraday optic 1204, the light is rotated +45 degrees to counter the −45 degrees rotation achieved by the half wave plate 1203. Thus, the light output from the Faraday optic (after the fourth pass) is “p” polarized light. Optionally, single polarizing element 1201, Faraday optic 1204, and reflector 1211 could be increased in size to support additional passes of the Faraday optic 1204; further reducing the thickness of the Faraday optic or size of the magnetic structure (such as the magnetic structure 1215 of FIG. 1C, which may have two separate magnetic elements 1215a, 1215b, and/or which may be adjustable, as discussed below).

Optionally, a dual stage, dual pass isolator may include two half wave plates, one for the light at an input region of the single isolator and another at an output region of the single isolator. For example, and such as shown in FIG. 1D, a single polarizing element 1301 has a half wave plate 1303a and a polarizing coating 1308 similar to single polarizing element 1101, discussed above, and the isolator includes a Faraday optic 1304 and reflector 1305 similar to the optic 1104 and reflector 1105 discussed above. Single polarizing element 1301 further includes a reflector 1311, such as at a center region between the half wave plate 1303a and the point or region 1310 where the light beam passes back through the single polarizing element 1301. The single polarizing element 1301 also includes a second half wave plate 1303b at region 1310, such that the light from the Faraday optic 1304 (after its fourth pass through the Faraday optic) is rotated as it passes through the second half wave plate 1303b so that the exiting beam is a p polarized beam. This is because a p polarized input beam will rotate −45 degrees when passing through first half wave plate 1303a, and then will rotate back +45 degrees when making two passes through the Faraday optic 1304, and then will rotate an additional +45 degrees when making another two passes through the Faraday optic (after reflecting off of reflector 1311). The beam then is rotated back −45 degrees by the second half wave plate 1303b to be a p polarized beam as it exits the single polarizing element 1301.

The isolator of the present invention thus provides multiple passes through a Faraday optic. If only two passes are made through the Faraday optic, then more magnetic power may be needed at the optic, which may result in a larger package. By providing for four or more (even number of) passes through the Faraday optic, a smaller magnet package may be used at the Faraday optic.

Referring to FIG. 2A, a perspective view of a single stage, dual pass PI isolator 1400 is shown in accordance with the present invention. The isolator includes a polarizing element 1401 and a Faraday optic 1404, with a half wave plate 1403 disposed at part of the polarizing element and a reflector 1405 disposed at the Faraday optic 1404. In the illustrated embodiment, the polarizing element 1401 has a first polarizing coating 1414 and a second polarizing coating 1415 at the diagonal surfaces of parallelepiped 1412 that are similarly bonded, such as through optical contact, to fused silica prisms 1413. Randomly polarized radiation 1410 from a source in the forward direction is resolved into “p” and “s” polarized beams 1416 and 1417, respectively, at the first polarizing coating 1414, with the s polarized beam being reflected upward by polarizing coating 1414. The “s” polarized beam 1417 is further reflected at the second polarizing coating 1415 and then transmitted out of the output AR coated surface of parallelepiped 1412 precisely parallel to and displaced from the “p” polarized beam 1416. As shown in FIG. 2A, the beams pass through the wave plate 1403 where they are rotated −45 degrees, and then the rotated p and s beams pass through the Faraday optic 1404 and reflect off of the reflector 1405, so as to make two passes through the optic 1404 (where they are rotated back +45 degrees) and return towards the polarizing element 1401. The beams enter the polarizing element at a location devoid of the half wave plate 1403, whereby the s beam is reflected downward by the polarizing coating 1415 and further reflected by the polarizing coating 1414 so as to exit the polarizing element 1401 with the p beam.

For light traveling in the reverse direction (FIG. 2B), the 90 degree rotation (+45 degrees by the Faraday +45 degrees by the wave plate) in the reverse direction causes the upper beam (the beam reflected by the polarizing coatings 1414, 1415) to pass through the upper diagonal (not reflected by the polarizing coating 1415) and the lower beam to be reflected by the lower diagonal polarizing coating 1414. Thus, reverse propagation of light is precluded from exiting the isolator in the direction of the source of light beam 1410 of FIG. 2A. Therefore, reverse propagating light is unable to couple back into the source.

A two stage PI isolator is increasingly desired to manage back reflections from PI laser systems generating over 100W of average power. Leakage from traditional single stage isolators can be sufficient to be amplified to levels which are harmful to internal laser components. Referring to FIG. 3A, a perspective view of a dual stage, dual pass PI isolator 1500 is shown in accordance with the present invention. The isolator includes a polarizing element 1501 with half wave plates 1503a and 1503b and quarter wave plate 1511 disposed at part of the polarizing element and a reflector 1505 disposed at the Faraday optic 1504. Collimated laser radiation 1510 is incident upon a single fused silica polarizing beam displacer 1501 (PBD) where it is resolved into forward propagating “s” polarization beam 1516 (solid line) and “p” polarization beam 1517 (dashed line). Both “p” and “s” polarization beams are transmitted through first isolation stage quartz half waveplate 1503a which may be bonded to beam displacer 1501 with optic axis +22.5 degrees such that the “p” and “s” polarized beams experience a +45 degree polarization rotation about the forward propagation axis to be +45 and +135 degree polarized beams, respectively.

The beams 1516, 1517 then make two passes through the Faraday optic 1504 (via reflection off of reflector 1505) and return to the PBD 1501, where the p beam passes through the PBD and through a ¼ wave plate 1511 and reflects off a reflector at the back side of the wave plate 1511 so as to again propagate through the PBD 1501. The s beam also passes through the PBD and reflects off of the upper reflector coating and again off of the lower reflector coating so as to pass through the ¼ wave plate 1511 and reflects off a reflector at the back side of the wave plate 1511 so as to again propagate through the PBD 1501.

After the first pass of the ¼ wave plate 1511, the light is circularly polarized. The reflection off of the backside of the ¼ wave plate causes a 180 degree phase shift thereby reversing the circularity. The return pass through the ¼ wave plate converts the light back to being planar polarized, but with the light then being rotated 90 degrees, such that the s beam becomes a p beam and the p beam becomes an s beam. This allows the two beams to flip planes and travel the same path length. In other words, the now s beam 1517′ (formerly the p beam) now reflects off of the coatings in the PBD, while the now p beam 1516′ (formerly the s beam) now passes directly through the PBD. Thus, by the time the two beams have again passed through the Faraday optic and again passed through the PBD so as to exit the PBD as beam 1510′, the s beams and p beams have traveled the same path length. For collimated laser light, this is very important and allows very high beam quality to be maintained. If a particular application does not require high beam quality, ¼ wave plate 1511 could be removed and replaced with a high reflection coated region.

Thus, and as shown in FIG. 3A, the two beams will be reflected between Faraday optic high reflector 1505 (at the rear or opposite end of the Faraday optic 1504) and single fused silica PBD first stage high reflector 1511 N times such that 2N passes are made through Faraday optic 1504 before the two beams are incident upon single fused silica AR coated region of the beam displacer 1501.

Reverse propagating radiation 1520 (FIG. 3B), will follow the identical ray path and polarization states until after the rays have been transmitted through the second stage half-waveplate where the −45 degrees of second stage Faraday rotation is added to −45 degrees of reciprocal second stage half-waveplate rotation to rotate the polarizations of both beams by −90 degrees such that they are rejected away from the forward beam propagation axis as shown by rejected ray lines in FIG. 3B. As shown in FIG. 3B, one beam of reverse propagating beam 1520 passes through the PBD 1501 and wave plate 1503b and reflects back from the Faraday optic 1504, whereby it is rotated such that it reflects downward at the lower reflector coating of the PBD 1501 and exits as a first stage rejected beam 1521a. The other polarized beam of the initial reverse propagating beam 1520 reflects upward in the PBD 1501 and further reflects to the Faraday optic and back, where it is rotated such that it passes through the PBD 1501 and exits the PBD as first stage rejected beam 1521b.

After the residual radiation is reduced in power by typically 30 dB relative to the original back-reflected power in the second stage isolator, the polarizations are again flipped by quarter waveplate before repeating the process in the first isolation stage, where again −45 degrees of first stage Faraday rotation is added to −45 degrees of reciprocal first stage half-waveplate rotation to again rotate the polarizations of both beams by −90 degrees such that they are once again rejected away from the original forward beam propagation axis as shown by the lines 1522a, 1522b in FIG. 3B. With the first stage 30 dB isolation similar to the second stage 30 dB isolation, the residual radiation from the original back-reflected power level is reduced by approximately 60 dB, thereby ensuring that none of this back-reflected light can damage or disrupt the laser system.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an isolator 1600 comprises a single polarized beam displacer 1601 having three reflective layers or coatings 1614a, 1614b, 1614c. The isolator 1600 operates in a similar manner to isolator 1500, discussed above, for forward propagating beams. However, by adding a third layer to the displacer, all four rejected beams 1621a, 1621b, 1622a, 1622b can be directed in the same direction as they exit the isolator. This simplifies the beam dump and thermal management of the high power reverse power.

The reciprocal polarization rotators need not be half-waveplates, they could also be (quartz) optical rotators, for example, or other suitable reciprocal polarization rotators. All of the above quartz waveplates need not be bonded to the single fused silica PBD, however aligning their optical axis and then bonding such waveplates to fused silica optical components such as polarizing beam-splitter cubes by optical contact is desired. Bonding these quartz waveplates directly to the single fused silica PBD to form a single optical part during final assembly has the advantage of greatly reducing the overall cost, parts count and assembly time for the optical isolator of this invention. Thus, the present invention provides a high performance PI isolator that is scalable in power with beam diameter that can be fabricated with only two separate optical components.

Although specifics above were given for a TGG Faraday optic, any Faraday optic material may be used in accordance with the present invention, such as, for example, ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, semiconductor and diamagnetic materials and/or the like. In particular, diamagnetic materials which typically have a very low Verdet constant but often have extremely low absorption can function well as temperature insensitive optical isolators in accordance with the invention because their Verdet constant is only very weakly related to temperature. The specific signs of reciprocal and non-reciprocal rotation need not be limited to those described above—they can be mutually reversed by reversing the sign of the applied magnetic field to the Faraday optic and rotating the direction of the reciprocal polarization rotators accordingly.

High reflection coatings should impart a pure 180 degree phase shift upon reflection and need not be limited to thin films as they can also be made from metal coatings.

The Faraday optics high reflection coated surface may have a protective overlayer, such as SiO₂ or the like, and then a metallization layer, such as gold or the like, so that the Faraday optic may be soldered directly to a heat sinking housing with, for example, a gold-tin solder layer for enhanced conduction of heat out through the high reflection coated surface. Heat flow substantially parallel to the beam path minimizes any radial heat flow across the beam cross section that can result in thermal lens focal shifts and thermal birefringence.

Optionally, it is another aspect of the present invention that the Faraday optic may comprise a layered structure with a transparent heat conductive layer bonded to one or both optical faces of a diamagnetic, paramagnetic or ferromagnetic Faraday rotating material. Such transparent heat conductive layers, in conjunction with sufficient multi-passes to ensure that the Faraday optic is thin relative to the beam diameter, ensures that heat flow is substantially parallel to the beam path within the Faraday optic. The function of the transparent heat conductive layer is described in detail in U.S. Publication No. 2014/0218795, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Heat flow parallel to the beam path eliminates radial temperature gradients responsible for thermal lens focal shift and thermal birefringence.

Another aspect of the present invention is that the multi-pass Faraday rotator may use an adjustable magnetic structure that is capable of modifying the magnetic field strength generally aligned to the beam path with the Faraday optical element(s) used in the multi-pass Faraday rotator. In the case of multi-stage optical isolators, such magnetic field adjustability can be independent or different for each stage for improving the temperature and/or wavelength bandwidth performance of the optical isolator. The adjustable magnetic structure is adjustable relative to the optical elements via any suitable electrical or mechanical or electromechanical means that may adjust the space or gap between the magnetic structure and the optical element to provide the desired performance of the optical isolator. For example, and such as shown in FIG. 1C, an adjustable magnetic structure 1215 may include two magnetic structures 1215a and 1215b, which can be moved independently or in tandem (relative to the Faraday optic 1204) to achieve different faraday rotations per stage.

Therefore, the present invention provides an optical isolator having one or more isolation stages using a single polarizing element in conjunction with a multi-pass Faraday rotator and one 45 degree reciprocal polarization rotation element per isolation stage for improved alignment simplicity, reduced parts count and lower cost. The multi-pass Faraday rotator optionally and desirably has an even number of multi-passes and may comprise a Faraday optic with a highly reflective coating on one optical face and an anti-reflective coating on the opposite optical face nearest to the single polarizing element. A magnetic field generally aligned to the beam path in the multi-pass Faraday rotator causes 45 degree non-reciprocal polarization rotation in the Faraday optic for each isolation stage. The 45 degree reciprocal polarization rotation element may comprise a quartz waveplate that is bonded, such as by adhesive free optical contact for high power applications, to a surface of the single polarizing element in the optical path of only one pass of the beam and aligned for the opposite sense rotation to the Faraday non-reciprocal rotation.

Changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the principles of the invention, which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims, as interpreted according to the principles of patent law including the doctrine of equivalents.

Claims

1. An optical isolator for generally collimated laser radiation with one or more isolation stages, said optical isolator comprising: a single polarizing element;at least one Faraday optical element comprising opposing optical faces through which there is a beam propagation axis;at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element disposed at said single polarizing element;at least one reflective optical element for reflecting radiation to provide an even number of passes through said at least one Faraday optical element;a magnetic structure capable of generating a magnetic field within said at least one Faraday optical element that is generally aligned with the even number of passes along said beam propagation axis; andwherein said optical isolator is configured to receive generally collimated laser radiation, which passes through said single polarizing element and said at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element and which makes at least two passes through said at least one Faraday optical element, whereby generally collimated laser radiation is output from said optical isolator.

2. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one reflective optical element comprises a reflective coating at a surface of said at least one Faraday optical element.

3. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one reflective optical element comprises a reflective coating at a surface of said polarization altering optical elements.

4. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one reflective optical element comprises a reflective coating at a surface of said single polarizing element.

5. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one reflective optical element comprises a mirror.

6. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element comprises at least one half-wave plate.

7. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element comprises at least one quarter-wave plate.

8. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element comprises at least one optical rotator.

9. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said single polarizing element comprises a polarizing beam displacer.

10. The optical isolator of claim 9, wherein said polarizing beam displacer comprises a birefringent crystal.

11. The optical isolator of claim 9, wherein said polarizing beam displacer comprises a beam displacer configured so that all backward propagating radiation is directed in the same direction as it exits the optical isolator.

12. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said magnetic structure comprises an adjustable magnetic structure capable of modifying the magnetic field strength within said at least one Faraday optical element.

13. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said magnetic structure comprises an adjustable magnetic structure capable of modifying the magnetic field strength within each isolation stage independently.

14. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein said at least one Faraday optic element comprises a layered structure with a transparent heat conductive layer bonded to one or both optical faces of a diamagnetic, paramagnetic or ferromagnetic Faraday rotating material.

15. The optical isolator of claim 1, wherein reverse propagating radiation passes through said single polarizing element and said at least one reciprocal polarization altering optical element and makes at least two passes through said at least one Faraday optical element, whereby the reverse propagating radiation is not output from said single polarizing element in the direction of the source of the generally collimated laser radiation.